0  5\1  T  !E  Ipl 


SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED  IN  TOE  CONGRESS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
AND  ON  SEVERAL  PUBLIC  OCCASIONS, 


HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

i »  / 


n 

OF   MARYLAND. 


PRECEDED  BY  A  SKETCH  OF  HIS  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND  CHARACTER, 


BEING  AN  ORATION  BY  THE  HON.  J.  A.  J.  CRESSWELL, 

tT.  6.  SENATOR  FEOM  MARYLAND. 


Hotes,  Jrntrotiuctorj}  anfc  H 


NEW     Y  O  R  K  : 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 

1867. 


. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty- seven,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


•"/•  -\ 


PREFACE. 


THE  friends  of  the  late  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS  have  thouglit.it 
due  to  his  memory,  and  to  the  remembrance  of  the  public  service 
which  he  fulfilled  both  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and 
before  the  people  of  Maryland,  especially  in  behalf  of  emancipa 
tion,  that  all  such  adequate  and  proper  account  of  it  as  could  be 
had  should  be  put  into  some  convenient  shape,  and  published,  as 
a  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  times,  as  well  as  constituting  a 
suitable  record  of  that  service. 

To  this  end  they  have  collected  all  the  reports  and  accounts  of 
the  speeches  and  addresses  delivered  by  him,  and,  upon  examina 
tion  of  them,  it  was  resolved  to  publish  all  such  as  were  regularly 
and  correctly  reported,  and  which  he  had  gathered  or  retained, 
precisely  as  they  were  printed  and  as  he  left  them,  without  cor 
rection  and  without  omission,  except  in  two  instances  alone, 
where  direct  allusion  by  name  was  made  to  persons,  which  allu 
sions  they  believe  Mr.  l)avis  would  have  omitted  if  he  had  lived 
to  correct  these  speeches  for  the-  press. 

In  this  collection  have  also  been  included  such  documents  and 
reports  as  were  wholly  written  by  him,  although  the  course  rec 
ommended  in  such  papers  was  not  adopted,  or  the  measures  or 
men  condemned  thereby  were  approved,  by  the  party  he  support 
ed  or  by  the  people  to  whom  he  appealed.  For  it  has  not  been 
thought  admissible  to  correct  any  part  of  the  account,  nor  to  with 
hold  any  part  of  it,  unless  by  reason  of  an  insufficient  and  inade 
quate  report  it  was  plainly  no  true  record  of  what  was  said. 

It  is  to  be  regretted,  of  course,  that  these  speeches  and  docu- 


iv  PREFACE. 

ments  should  not  have  received  final  revision  by  the  author's 
hand ;  but,  in  the  absence  of  that,  the  only  proper  emendation,  it 
has  been  thought  improper  to  substitute  the  corrections  of  any 
other. 

They  have  gladly  used  the  permission  of  the  Hon.  Mr.  CRESS- 
WELL  to  include  here,  as  a  sketch  of  the  life  and  services  of  Mr. 
Davis,  the  admirable  Oration  delivered  by  him  in  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  on  the  occasion  of  the  commemorative 
services  held  there  by  the  senators  and  representatives  on  the  22cl 
of  February,  1866. 

Short  notes  have  been  prefixed  or  annexed  to  each  speech  or 
paper,  explanatory  of  the  allusions  made  in  it — recalling  contem 
porary  events,  or  the  circumstances  under  which,  and  the  time  at 
which,  it  was  delivered.  The  intention  has  been  to  confine  those 
notes  to  that  purpose  alone  ;  and  the  statements  made  have  been 
verified  by  a  recurrence  to  the  daily  record  of  such  events  printed 
or  made  at  the  time  of  their  occurrence. 


CONTENTS. 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

An  Oration  delivered  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Hon.  John 
A.  J.Cresswell,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1866. „ Page  9 


SPEECHES    AND    ADDEESSES. 

A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY  AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  August  7th,  1856 39 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1S56) — THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  6th,  1857 63. 

AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAtDS. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  30th,  1858 83 

REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  EASTERN  FEMALE  HIGH  SCHOOL 

OF  BALTIMORE. 

An  Address  delivered  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  November  16, 1858 104 

THE   REOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE. 
An  Article  written  for  a  Daily  Journal  in  August,  1859 115 

THE  QUESTION  IN  THE  TERRITORIES.  —  UNION  OF  ALL  OPPOSED  TO  THE  DE 
MOCRACY. 

An  Article  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune  in  November,  1859...  119 

ON  THE   RESOLUTIONS   OF  CENSURE  BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE  ON  AC 
COUNT  OF  MR.  DA  VIS'S  VOTE  FOR  MR.  SPEAKER  PENNINGTON. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  21st,  1860 125 

SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF 

MARYLAND. 

A  Speech  addressed  to  the  Electors  of  the  Fourth  Congressional  District  of 
Maryland  during  the  Presidential  Campaign  of  1860 146 


vi  CONTENTS. 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS   OF  THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT. 

A  Letter  addressed  to  the  Constituents  of  Mr.  Davis,  January  2d,  18Gl...Page  187 

THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY -THREE. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  7th,  18G1 199 

ADDRESS   TO   THE   CITIZENS   OF   BALTIMORE   ON   THE   STATE   OF  THE   NATION 
IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF  'Cl. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  October  IGth,  18G1 222 


CONSTITUTIONAL   POWERS  SUFFICIENT  FOR  REPRESSION   OF  REBELLION. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  November,  18G1 258 

CONFISCATION   OF  THE  PROPERTY  OF  THOSE   ENGAGED  IN   REBELLION. 

Two  Letters  addressed  to  the  Hon.  Justin  S.  Morrill,  a  Representative  in  Con 
gress  from  Vermont,  June  Gth,  1862 292 

THE   DEMOCRATIC  HUE  AND  CRY  A   SHAM.— CONFISCATION  AND  EMANCIPATION. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  Concert  Hall,  Newark,  N.  J.,  October  30th,  18G2 303 

NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY*. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  Concert  Hall,  Philadelphia,  September  24th,  18G3 307 

REMARKS  AT  THE  RECEPTION  OF  RUSSIAN  NAVAL  OFFICERS. 

A  Response  to  a  Toast,  delivered  in  the  Astor  House,  New  York,  October  12th, 
18G3 338 

NO  PEACE  TILL  AFTER  REBEL  SUBMISSION. 

An  Address  delivered  in  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York,  October  9th,  18G3. ...  341 

CONFISCATION   OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  14th,  18G4 343 

DRAFT  AND  COMMUTATION.— COLORED  TROOPS. 

Extracts  from  Speeches  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February 
10th  and  llth,  1864 .".  351 

FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU— DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  25th,  18G4 353 

REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS   STATES. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  22d,  1864 3G8 

ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  Maryland  Institute,  Baltimore,  April  1st,  1864 384 


CONTENTS.  vii 

THE  EMPIRE  OF  MEXICO. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  April  4th,  1864 Page  395 

EXPULSION  OF  MR  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  April  llth,  1864 397 

THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL. 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  July  1st,  18G4 410 

THE  PRESIDENTS  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE 
REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

An  Address  to  the  People,  known  as  the  "Wade-Davis  Manifesto,"  published 
August  8th,  18G4 415 

VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  National  Hall,  Philadelphia,  October  25th,  18G4 427 

JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON   MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 
A  Report  and  Resolution  addressed  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  June,18G4..  456 

.  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  REGARD  TO  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  1864 472 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT.— MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS. 
Speeches  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  3d  and  Gth,  18G5..  480 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.          , 
A  Speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  21st,  18G5 529 

SPEECH  ON  PROPOSING  AN  AMENDMENT  TO  THE  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION 

BILL  PROHIBITING  THE  TRIAL  OF  CITIZENS  BY  MILITARY  COMMISSIONS. 
The  last  Speech  made  by  Mr.  Davis  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  delivered 
March  2d,  1865,  at  the  close  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress 538 

LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION.— UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE. 
A  Letter  written  to  a  Friend  in  Washington,  dated  Baltimore,  May  27, 1865...  556 

LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR.— SECURITY  FOR  THE  FUTURE,  AND  SELF-GOVERNMENT 
BY  LAW,  WITH  LIBERTY  GUARDED  BY   POWER. 

An  Oration  delivered  in  the  Hall  of  the  Sanitary  Fair  at  Chicago,  111.,  July  4th, 
1865 564 

THE  NECESSITY   OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE   IN  RECONSTRUCTION. 

A  Letter  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  (New  York)  Nation,  October,  1865 585 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


HENRY    WINTER    DAVIS 

AN  ORATION  BY 

HON.  JOHN  A.  J.  CRESWELL, 

U.  S.   SENATOR    FROM   MARYLAND. 


DclfbcrcU  fit  tlje  fljall  of  ttje  ?$QUSZ  o.f 

FEBRUARY  22,  1SG6. 


THE  death  of  Hon.  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS,  on  the  30th  of  December,  18G5,  for 
many  years  a  distinguished  representative  of  one  of  the  Baltimore  congressional 
districts,  created  a  deep  sensation  among  those  who  had  been  associated  with  him  in 
national  legislation,  and  they  deemed  it  fitting  to  pay  to  his  memory  unusual  hon 
ors.  They  adopted  resolutions  expressive  of  their  grief,  and  invited  Hon.  JOHN  A. 
J.  CRESSWELL,  a  senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Maryland,  to  de 
liver  an  oration  on  his  life  and  character  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  on  the  22d  .of  February,  a  day  the  recurrence  of  which  ever  gives  increased 
warmth  to  patriotic  emotions. 

The  hall  of  the  House  was  filled  by  a  distinguished  audience  to  listen  to  the  ora 
tion.  Before  eleven  o'clock  the  galleries  were  crowded  in  every  part.  The  flags 
above  the  Speaker's  desk  were  draped  in  black,  and  other  insignia  of  mourning  were 
exhibited.  An  excellent  portrait  of  the  late  Hon.  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS  was  visi 
ble  through  the  folds  of  the  national  banner  fcbove  the  Speaker's  chair.  As  on  the 
occasion  of  the  oration  on  President  LINCOLN  by  Hon.  GEORGE  BANCROFT,  the 
Marine  band  occupied  the  anteroom  of  the  reporter's  gallery,  and  discoursed  ap 
propriate  music. 

At  twelve  o'clock  the  senators  entered,  and  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
preceded  by  Chief  Justice  Chase.  Of  the  cabinet,  Secretary  Stanton  and  Secretary 
McCulloch  were  present.  After  prayer  by  the  chaplain,  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  was  read  by  Hon.  EDWARD  McPiiERSON,  Clerk  of  the  House.  After  the 
reading  of  the  Declaration,  followed  by  the  playing  of  a  dirge  by  the  band,  lion. 
SCHUYLER  COLFAX,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  introduced  the  orator 
of  the  day,  Hon.  J.  A.  J,  CRESSWELL. 


EEMAEKS 


OF 


HON.  SCHUYLER    COLFAX, 

SPEAKER  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


Hon.  SCHUYLER  COLFAX,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
said: 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN, — The  duty  has  been  devolved  upon  me  of 
introducing  to  you  the  friend  and  fellow-member,  here,  of  HENRY  WINTER 
DAVIS,  and  I  shall  detain  you  but  a  moment  from  his  address,  to  which 
you  will  listen  with  saddened  interest. 

The  world  always  appreciates  and  honors  courage:  the  courage  of 
Christianity,  which  sustained  martyrs  in  the  amphitheatre,  at  the  stake, 
and  on  the  rack ;  the  courage  of  Patriotism,  which  inspired  millions  in 
our  own  land  to  realize  the  historic  fable  of  Curtius,  and  to  fill  up  with 
their  own  bodies,  if  need  be,  the  yawning  chasm  which  imperiled  the  re 
public  ;  the  courage  of  Humanity,  which  is  witnessed  in  the  pest-house 
and  the  hospital,  at  the  death-bed  of  the  homeless  and  the  prison-cell  of 
the  convict.  But  there  is  a  courage  of  Statesmen,  besides ;  and  nobly 
was  it  illustrated  by  the  statesman  whose  national  services  we  com 
memorate  to-day.  Inflexibly  hostile  to  oppression,  whether  of  slaves 
on  American  soil  or  of  republicans  struggling  in  Mexico  against  mo 
narchical  invasion,  faithful  always  to  principle  and  liberty,  championing 
always  the  cause  of  the  downtrodden,  fearless  as  he  was  eloquent  in  his 
•avowals,  he  was  mourned  throughout  a  continent;  and  from  the  Pa- 
tapsco  to  the  Gulf  the  blessings  of  those  who  had  been  ready  to  perish 
followed  him  to  his  tomb.  It  is  fitting,  therefore,  though  dying  a  private 
citizen,  that  the  nation  should  render  him  such  marked  and  unusual 
honors  in  this  hall,  the  scene  of  so  many  of  his  intellectual  triumphs ; 
and  I  have  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you,  as  the  orator  of  the  day, 
Hon.  J.  A.  J.  CKESSWELL,  his  colleague  in  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress, 
and  now  senator  from  the  State  of  Maryland. 


ORATION 


OF 


HON,  JOHN  A.  J.  CRESSWELL, 


The  Hon.  Mr.  CEESSWELL  rose  and  spoke  as  follows : 

MY  COUNTRYMEN, — On  the  22d  day  of  February,  1732,  God  gave 
to  the  world  the  highest  type  of  humanity  in  the  person  of  George 
Washington.  Combining  within  himself  the  better  qualities  of  the 
soldier,  sage,  statesman,  and  patriot,  alike  brave,  wise,  discreet,  and 
incorruptible,  the  common  consent  of  mankind  has  awarded  him  the 
incomparable  title  of  Father  of  his  Country.  Among  all  nations  and 
in  every  clime,  the  richest  treasures  of  language  have  been  exhausted 
in  the  effort  to  transmit  to  posterity  a  faithful  record  of  his  deeds. 
For  him  unfading  laurels  are  secure  so  long  as  letters  shall  survive 
and  history  shall  continue  to  be  the  guide  and  teacher  of  civilized 
men.  The  whole  human  race  has  become  the  self-appointed  guardian 
of  his  fame,  and  the  name  of  Washington  will  be  ever  held,  over  all 
the  earth,  to  be  synonymous  with  the  highest  perfection  attainable 
in  public  or  private  life,  and  coeternal  with  that  immortal  love  to 
which  reason  and  revelation  have  together  toiled  to  elevate  human 
aspirations — the  love  of  liberty  restrained  and  guarded  by  law. 

But  in  the  presence  of  the  Omnipotent  how  insignificant  is  the 
proudest  and  the  noblest  of  men !  Even  Washington,  who  alone  of 
his  kind  could  fill  that  comprehensive  epitome  of  General  Henry 
Lee,  so  often  on  our  lips,  "  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  was  allowed  no  exemption  from  the  com 
mon  lot  of  mortals.  In  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age  he  too  paid 
the  debt  of  nature. 

The  dread  announcement  of  his  demise  sped  over  the  land  like  a 
pestilence,  burdening  the  very  air  with  mourning,  and  carrying  in 
expressible  sorrow  to  every  household  and  every  heart.  The  course 
of  legislation  was  stopped  in  mid  career  to  give  expression  to  the 
grief  of  Congress,  and  by  resolution,  approved  January  6, 1800,  the 
22d  of  February  of  that  year  was  devoted  to  national  humiliation 


ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

and  lamentation.  This  is,  then,  as  well  a  day  of  sorrow  as  a  day  of 
rejoicing. 

More  recent  calamities  also  remind  us  that  death  is  universal  king. 
Just  ten  days  ago  our  great  historian  pronounced  in  this  hall  an  im 
partial  judgment  upon  the  earthly  career  of  him  who,  as  savior  of 
his  country,  will  be  counted  as  the  compeer  of  Washington.  Scarce 
have  the  orator's  lingering  tones  been  mellowed  into  silence,  scarce 
has  the  glowing  page  whereon  his  words  were  traced  lost  the  im 
press  of  his  passing  hand,  yet  we  are  again  called  into  the  presence 
of  the  Inexorable  to  crown  one  more  illustrious  victim  with  sacrificial 
flowers.  Having  taken  up  his  lifeless  body,  as  beautiful  as  the  dead 
Absalom,  and  laid  it  in  the  tomb  with  becoming  solemnity,  we  have 
assembled  in  the  sight  of  the  world  to  do  deserved  honor  to  the 
name  and  memory  of  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS,  a  native  of  Annapolis, 
in  the  State  of  Maryland,  but  always  proudly  claiming  to  be  no  less 
than  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

We  have  not  convened  in  obedience  to  any  formal  custom,  re 
quiring  us  to  assume  an  empty  show  of  bereavement,  in  order  that 
we  may  appear  respectful  to  the  departed.  We  who  knew  Henry 
Winter  Davis  are  not  content  to  clothe  ourselves  in  the  outward 
garb  of  grief,  and  call  the  semblance  of  mourning  a  fitting  tribute  to 
the  gifted  orator  and  statesman,  so  suddenly  snatched  from  our  midst 
in  the  full  glory  of  his  mental  and  bodily  strength.  We  would  do 
more  than  "  bear  about  the  mockery  of  woe."  Prompted  by  a  gen 
uine  affection,  we  desire  to  ignore  all  idle  and  merely  conventional 
ceremonies,  and  permit  our  stricken  hearts  to  speak  their  spontane 
ous  sorrow. 

Here,  then,  where  he  sat  for  eight  years  as  a  representative  of  the 
people ;  where  friends  have  trooped  about  him,  and  admiring  crowds 
have  paid  homage  to  his  genius ;  where  grave  legislators  have  yield 
ed  themselves  willing  captives  to  his  eloquence,  and  his  wise  counsel 
has  moulded  in  no  small  degree  the  law  of  a  great  nation,  let  us,  in 
dealing  with  what  he  has  left  us,  verify  the  saying  of  Bacon,  "Death 
openeth  the  good  fame  and  extinguished  envy."  Remembering 
that  he  was  a  man  of  like  passions  and  equally  fallible  with  our 
selves,  let  us  review  his  life  in  a  spirit  of  generous  candor,  applaud 
what  is  good,  and  try  to  profit  by  it ;  and  if  we  find  aught  of  ill,  let 
us,  so  far  as  justice  and  truth  will  permit,  cover  it  with  the  veil  of 
charity,  and  bury  it  out  of  sight  forever.  So  may  our  survivors  do 
for  us. 

The  subject  of  this  address  was  born  on  the  16th  of  August,  1817. 

His  father,  Rev.  Henry  Lyon  Davis,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  XV 

Church,  was  president  of  St.  John's  College  at  Annapolis,  Maryland, 
and  rector  of  St.  Ann's  parish.  He  was  of  imposing  person,  and  great 
dignity  and  force  of  character.  He  was,  moreover,  a  man  of  genius, 
and  of  varied  and  profound  learning,  eminently  versed  in  mathemat 
ics  and  natural  sciences,  abounding  in  classical  lore,  endowed  with  a 
vast  memory,  and  gifted  with  a  concise,  clear,  and  graceful  style ; 
rich  and  fluent  in  conversation,  but  without  the  least  pretension  to 
oratory,  and  wholly  incapable  of  extempore  speaking.  He  was  re 
moved  from  the  presidency  of  St.  John's  by  a  board  of  Democratic 
trustees  because  of  his  Federal  politics ;  and,  years  afterward,  he 
gave  his  son  his  only  lesson  in  politics,  at  the  end  of  a  letter  ad 
dressed  to  him  when  at  Kenyon  College,  in  this  laconic  sentence : 
"  My  sou,  beware  of  the  follies  of  Jacksonism." 

His  mother  was  Jane  Brown  Winter,  a  woman  of  elegant  accom 
plishments,  and  great  sweetness  of  disposition  and  purity  of  life.  It 
might  be  truthfully  said  of  her  that  she  was  an  exemplar  for  all  who 
knew  her.  She  had  only  two  children,  Henry  Winter,  and  Jane, 
who  married  the  Rev.  Edward  Seyle. 

The  education  of  Henry  Winter  began  very  early,  at  home,  under 
the  care  of  his  aunt,  Elizabeth  Brown  Winter,  who  entertained  the 
most  rigid  and  exacting  opinions  in  regard  to  the  training  of  chil 
dren,  but  who  was,  withal,  a  noble  woman.  He  once  playfully  said, 
"I  could  read  before  I  was  four  years  old,  though  much  against  my 
will."  When  his  father  was  removed  from  St.  John's,  he  went  to 
Wilmington,  Delaware,  but  some  time  elapsed  before  he  became  set 
tled  there.  Meanwhile  Henry  Winter  remained  with  his  aunt,  in 
Alexandria,  Virginia.  He  afterward  went  to  Wilmington,  and  was 
there  instructed  under  his  father's  supervision.  In  1827  his  father 
returned  to  Maryland,  and  settled  in  Anne  Arundel  County. 

After  reaching  Anne  Arundel,  Henry  Winter  became  so  much  de 
voted  to  outdoor  life  that  he  gave  small  promise  of  scholarly  pro 
ficiency.  He  affected  the  sportsman,  and  became  a  devoted  disciple 
of  Nimrod ;  accompanied  always  by  one  of  his  father's  slaves,  he 
roamed  the  country  with  a  huge  old  fowling-piece  on  his  shoulder, 
burning  powder  in  abundance,  but  doing  little  damage  otherwise. 
While  here  he  saw  much  of  slaves  and  slavery,  and  what  he  saw  im 
pressed  him  profoundly,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  those  opinions 
which  he  so  heroically  and  constantly  defended  in  all  his  after  life. 
Referring  to  this  period,  he  said,  long  afterward,  "  My  familiar  asso 
ciation  with  the  slaves  while  a  boy  gave  me  great  insight  into  their 
feelings  and  views.  They  spoke  with  freedom  before  a  boy  what 
they  would  have  repressed  before  a  man.  They  were  far  from  indif- 


xvi  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

ferent  to  their  condition  ;  they  felt  wronged,  and  sighed  for  freedom. 
They  were  attached  to  my  father  and  loved  me,  yet  they  habitually 
spoke  of  the  day  when  God  would  deliver  them." 

He  subsequently  went  to  Alexandria,  and  was  sent  tv  school  at 
Howard,  near  the  Theological  Seminary,  and  from  Ho  war  '  he  went 
to  Kenyon  College,  in  Ohio,  in  the  fall  of  1833. 

Kenyon  was  then  in  the  first  year  of  the  presidency  cp  Bishop 
Mcllvaine.  It  was  the  centre  of  vast  forests,  broken  only  b"  occa 
sional  clearings,  excepting  along  the  lines  of  the  National  Roa  1  and 
the  Ohio  River  and  its  navigable  tributaries.  In  this  wilderness  of 
nature,  but  garden  of  letters,  he  remained,  at  first  in  the  grammar- 
school,  and  then  in  the  college,  until  the  6th  of  September,  1837, 
when,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  he  took  his  degree  and  diploma,  deco 
rated  with  one  of  the  honorary  orations  of  his  class  on  the  great  day 
of  commencement.  His  subject  was  "  Scholastic  Philosophy." 

At  the  end  of  the  freshman  year  a  change  in  the  college  terms 
gave  him  a  vacation  of  three  months.  Instead  of  spending  it  in  idle 
ness,  as  he  might  have  done,  and  as  most  boys  would  have  done,  he 
availed  himself  of  this  interval  to  pursue  and  complete  the  studies  of 
the  sophomore  year,  to  which  he  had  already  given  some  attention  in 
his  spare  moments.  At  the  opening  of  the  next  session  he  passed 
the  examination  for  the  junior  class.  Fortunately  I  have  his  own 
testimony  and  opinion  as  to  this  exploit,  and  I  give  them  in  his  own 
language : 

"It  was  a  pretty  sharp  trial  of  resolution  and  dogged  diligence,  but  it  saved  me 
a  year  of  college,  and  indurated  my  powers  of  study  and  mental  culture  into  a  hab 
it,  and  perhaps  enabled  me  to  stay  long  enough  to  graduate.  I  do  not  recommend 
the  example  to  those  who  are  independently  situated,  for  learning  must  fall  like 
the  rain  in  such  gentle  showers  as  to  sink  in  if  it  is  to  be  fruitful ;  when  poured  on 
the  richest  soil  in  torrents,  it  not  only  runs  off  without  strengthening  vegetation, 
but  washes  away  the  soil  itself." 

His  college  life  was  laborious  and  successful.  The  regular  studies 
were  prosecuted  with  diligence,  and  from  them  he  derived  great 
profit,  not  merely  in  knowledge,  but  in  what  is  of  vastly  more  ac 
count,  the  habit  and  power  of  mental  labor.  These  studies  were 
wrought  into  his  mind  and  made  part  of  the  intellectual  substance 
by  the  vigorous  collisions  of  the  societies  in  which  he  delighted. 
For  these  mimic  conflicts  he  prepared  assiduously,  not  in  writing, 
but  always  with  a  carefully  adduced  logical  analysis  and  arrange 
ment  of  the  thoughts  to  be  developed  in  the  order  of  argument,  with 
a  brief  note  of  any  quotation,  or  image,  or  illustration  on  the  margin 
at  the  appropriate  place.  From  that  brief  he  spoke.  And  this  was 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  xvii 

his  only  method  of  preparation  for  all  the  great  conflicts  in  which 
he  took  part  in  after  life.  He  never  wrote  out  his  speeches  before 
hand. 

Speaking  of  his  feelings  at  the  end  of  his  college  life,  he  sadly 
said : 

"My  father's  death  had  embittered  the  last  days  of  the  year  1836,  and  left  me 
without  a  counselor.  I  knew  something  of  books,  nothing  of  men,  and  I  went 
forth  like  Adam  among  the  wild  beasts  of  the  unknown  wilderness  of  the  world. 
My  father  had  dedicated  me  to  the  ministry,  but  the  day  had  gone  when  such  dedi 
cations  determined  the  lives  of  young  men.  Theology,  as  a  grave  topic  of  historic 
and  metaphysical  investigation,  I  delighted  to  pursue,  but  for  the  ministry  I  had  no 
calling.  I  would  have  been  idle  if  I  could,  for  I  had  no  ambition  ;  but  I  had  no 
fortune,  and  I  could  not  beg  or  starve." 

All  who  were  acquainted  with  his  temperament  can  well  imagine 
what  a  gloomy  prospect  the  future  presented  to  him,  when  its  con 
templation  wrung  from  his  stoical  taciturnity  that  touching  con 
fession. 

The  truth  is,  that  from  the  time  he  entered  college  he  was  contin 
ually  cramped  for  want  of  money.  The  negroes  ate  every  thing  that 
was  produced  on  the  farm  in  Anne  Arundel,  a  gastronomic  feat 
which  they  could  easily  accomplish  without  ever  having  cause  to 
complain  of  a  surfeit.  His  aunt,  herself  in  limited  circumstances,  by 
a  careful  husbandry  of  her  means,  managed  to  keep  him  at  college. 
Kenyon  was  then  a  manual-labor  institution,  and  the  boys  were  re 
quired  to  sweep  their  own  rooms,  make  their  own  beds  and  fires, 
bring  their  own  water,  black  their  own  boots,  if  they  ever  were 
blacked,  and  take  an  occasional  turn  at  grubbing  in  the  fields  or 
working  on  the  roads.  There  was  no  royal  road  to  learning  known 
at  Kenyon  in  those  days.  Through  all  this  Henry 'Winter  Davis 
passed,  bearing  himself  manfully  ;  and  knowing  how  heavily  he  taxed 
the  slender  purse  of  his  aunt,  he  denied  himself  with  such  rigor  that 
he  succeeded,  incredible  as  it  may  appear,  in  bringing  his  total  ex 
penses,  including  boarding  and  tuition,  within  the  sum  of  eighty  dol 
lars  per  annum. 

His  father  left  an  estate  consisting  only  of  some  slaves,  which  were 
equally  apportioned  between  himself  and  sister.  Frequent  applica 
tions  were  made  to  purchase  his  slaves,  but  he  never  could  be  in 
duced  to  sell  them,  although  the  proceeds  would  have  enabled  him 
to  pursue  his  studies  with  ease  and  comfort.  He  rather  sought  and 
obtained  a  tutorship,  and  for  two  years  he  devoted  to  law  and  letters 
only  the  time  he  could  rescue  from  its.  drudgery.  In  a  letter  written 
in  April,  1839,  replying  to  the  request  of  a  relative  who  offered  to 

B 


xviii  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

purchase  his  slave  Sallie,  subject  to  the  provisions  of  his  father's  will-, 
which  manumitted  her  if  she  would  go  to  Liberia,  he  said  :  "  But  if 
she  is  under  my  control"  (he  did  not  know  that  she  had  been  set  to 
his  share),  "  I  will  not  consent  to  the  sale,  though  he  wishes  to  pur 
chase  her  subject  to  the  will."  And  so  Sallie  was  not  sold,  and 
Henry  Winter  Davis,  the  tutor,  toiled  on  and  waited.  He  never 
would  hold  any  of  his  slaves  under  his  authority,  never  would  accept 
a  cent  of  their  wages,  and  tendered  each  and  all  of  them  a  deed  of 
absolute  manumission  whenever  the  law  would  allow.  Tell  me,  was 
that  man  sincere  in  his  opposition  to  slavery?  How  many  of  those 
who  have  since  charged  him  with  being  selfish  and  reckless  in  his 
advocacy  of  emancipation  would  have  shown  equal  devotion  to  prin 
ciple  ?  Not  one ;  not  one.  Ah !  the  man  who  works  and  suffers  for 
his  opinions'  sake  places  his  own  flesh  and  blood  in  pledge  for  his  in 
tegrity. 

Notwithstanding  his  irksome  and  exacting  duties,  he  kept  his  eye 
steadily  on  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  read  without  assistance 
a  large  part  of  its  course.  He  delighted  especially  in  the  pungent 
pages  of  Tacitus,  and  the  glowing  and  brilliant,  dignified  and  ele 
vated  epic  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  These 
were  favorites  which  never  lost  their  charm  for  him.  "When  recent 
ly  on  a  visit  at  my  house,  he  stated  in  conversation  that  he  often  ex 
ercised  himself  in  translating  from  the  former,  and  in  transferring  the 
thoughts  of  the  latter  into  his  own  language,  and  he  contended  that 
the  task  had  dispelled  the  popular  error  that  Gibbon's  style  is  swol 
len  and  declamatory ;  for  he  alleged  that  every  effort  at  condensation 
had  proved  a  failure,  and  that,  at  the  end  of  his  labors,  the  page  he 
had  attempted  to  compress  had  always  expanded  to  the  eye  when 
relieved  of  the  weighty  and  stringent  fetters  in  which  the  gigantic 
genius  of  Gibbon  had  bound  it. 

About  this  time — the  only  period  when  doubts  beset  him — he  was 
tempted  by  a  very  advantageous  offer  to  settle  in  Mississippi.  He 
determined  to  accept;  but  some  kind  spirit  interposed  to  prevent 
the  dispatch  of  the  final  letter,  and  he  remained  in  Alexandria.  At 
last  his  aunt — second  mother  as  she  was — sold  some  land,  and  dedi 
cated  the  proceeds  to  his  legal  studies.  He  arrived  at  the  Univer 
sity  of  Virginia  in  October,  1839. 

From  that  moment  he  entered  actively  and  unremittingly  on  his 
course  of  intellectual  training.  While  a  boy  he  had  become  familiar, 
under  the  guidance  of  his  father,  with  the  classics  of  Addison,  John 
son,  Swift,  Cowper,  and  Pope,  and  he  now  plunged  into  the  domain 
of  history.  He  had  begun  at  Kenyon  to  make  flanking  forays  into 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  XIX 

the  fields  of  historic  investigation,  which  lay  so  invitingly  on  each 
side  of  the  regular  march  of  his  college  course.  As  he  acquired 
more  information  and  confidence,  these  forays  became  more  exten 
sive  and  profitable.  It  was  then  the  transition  period  from  the  shal 
low  though  graceful  pages  of  Gillies,  Rollin,  Russel,  and  Tytler,  and 
the  rabbinical  agglomerations  of  Shuckford  and  Prideaux,  to  the 
modern  school  of  free,  profound,  and  laborious  investigation,  which 
has  reared  immortal  monuments  to  its  memory  in  the  works  of  Hal- 
lam,  Macaulay,  Grote,  Bancroft,  Prescott,  Motley,  Niebuhr,  Bunsen, 
Schlosser,  Thiers,  and  their  fellows.  But  of  the  last-named  none  ex 
cept  Niebuhr's  History  of  Rome  and  Hallam's  Middle  Ages  were 
accessible  to  him  in  the  backwoods  of  Ohio.  Cousin's  Course  of  the 
History  of  Modern  Philosophy  was  just  glittering  in  the  horizon, 
and  Gibbon  shone  alone  as  the  morning-star  of  the  day  of  historic 
research,  which  he  had  heralded  so  long.  The  French  Revolution 
he  had  seen  only  as  presented  in  Burke's  brilliant  vituperation  and 
Scott's  Tory  diatribe.  A  republican  picture  of  the  great  republican 
revolution,  the  fountain  of  all  that  is  now  tolerable  in  Europe,  had 
not  then  been  presented  on  any  authentic  and  comprehensive  page. 

Not  only  these,  but  all  historical  works  of  value  which  the  En 
glish,  French,  and  German  languages  can  furnish,  with  an  immense 
amount  of  other  intellectual  pabulum,  were  eagerly  gathered,  con 
sumed  with  voracious  appetite,  and  thoroughly  digested.  •  Supplied 
at  last  with  the  required  means,  he  braced  himself  for  a  systematic 
curriculum  of  law,  and  pursued  it  with  marked  constancy  and  suc 
cess.  While  at  the  University  he  also  took  up  the  German  and 
French  languages  and  mastered  them,  and  he  perfected  his  scholar 
ship  in  Latin  and  Greek.  Until  his  death  he  read  all  these  lan 
guages  with  great  facility  and  accuracy,  and  he  always  kept  his 
Greek  Testament  lying  on  his  table  for  easy  reference. 

After  a  thorough  course  at  the  University,  Mr.  Davis  entered 
upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Alexandria,  Virginia.  He  began  his 
profession  without  much  to  cheer  him ;  but  he  was  not  the  man  to 
abandon  a  pursuit  for  lack  of  courage.  His  ability  and  industry  at 
tracted  attention,  and  before  long  he  had  acquired  a  respectable  prac 
tice,  which  thenceforth  protected  him  from  all  annoyances  of  a  pecu 
niary  nature.  He  toiled  with  unwearied  assiduity,  never  appearing 
in  the  trial  of  a  cause  without  the  most  elaborate  and  exhaustive 
preparation,  and  soon  became  known  to  his  professional  brethren  as 
a  valuable  ally  and  a  formidable  foe.  His  natural  aptitude  for  pub 
lic  affairs  made  itself  manifest  in  due  time,  and  some  articles  which 
he  prepared  on  municipal  and  state  politics  gave  him  great  reputa- 


xx  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

tion.     He  also  published  a  series  of  newspaper  essays,  wherein  he 
dared  to  question  the  divinity  of  slavery ;  and  these,  though  at  the 
time  thought  to  be  not  beyond  the  limits  of  free  discussion,  were* 
cited  against  him  long  after  as  evidence  that  he  was  a  heretic  in  pro- 
slavery  Virginia  and  Maryland. 

On  the  30th  of  October,  1845,  he  married  Miss  Constance  T.  Gar 
diner,  daughter  of  William  C.  Gardiner,  Esq.,  a  most  accomplished 
and  charming  young  lady,  as  beautiful  and  as  fragile  as  a  flower. 
She  lived  to  gladden  his  heart  for  but  a  few  years,  and  then, 

"  Like  a  lily  drooping, 
She  bowed  her  head  and  died." 

In  1850  he  came  to  Baltimore,  and  immediately  a  high  position, 
professional,  social,  and  political,  was  awarded  him.  His  forensic  ef 
forts  at  once  commanded  attention  and  enforced  respect.  The  young 
men  of  most  ability  and  promise  gathered  about  him,  and  made  him 
the  centre  of  their  chosen  circle.  He  became  a  prominent  member 
of  the  Whig  party,  and  was  every  where  known  as  the  brilliant  ora 
tor  and  successful  controvertist  of  the  Scott  campaign  of  1852.  The 
Whig  party,  worn  out  by  its  many  gallant  but  unsuccessful  battles, 
was  ultimately  gathered  to  its  fathers,  and  Mr.  Davis  led  off  in  the 
American  movement.  He  was  elected  successively  to  the  Thirty- 
fourth,  Thirty-fifth,  and  Thirty-sixth  Congresses  by  the  American 
party  from  the  fourth  district  of  Maryland.  He  supported  with 
great  ability  and  zeal  Mr.  Fillmore  for  the  Presidency  in  1856,  and 
in  I860  accepted  John  Bell  as  the  candidate  of  his  party,  though  he 
clearly  divined  and  plainly  announced  that  the  great  battle  was  real 
ly  between  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  the  representative  of  the  national 
sentiment  on  the  one  hand,  and  secession  and  disunion,  in  all  their 
shades  and  phases,  on  the  other.  To  his  seat  in  the  Thirty-eighth 
Congress  he  was  elected  by  the  Unconditional  Union  party. 

Since  the  adjournment  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  he  had  been 
profoundly  concerned  in  the  momentous  public  questions  now  press 
ing  for  adjustment,  and  he  did  not  fail,  on  several  fitting  occasions, 
to  give  his  views  at  length  to  the  public.  Nevertheless,  he  frequent 
ly  alluded  to  his  earnest  desire  to  retreat  for  a  while  from  the  per 
plexing  annoyances  of  public  life.  He  had  determined  upon  a  long 
visit  to  Europe  in  the  coming  spring,  and  had  almost  concluded  the 
purchase  of  a  delightful  country-seat,  where  he  hoped  to  recruit  his 
weary  brain  for  years  to  come  from  the  exhaustless  riches  of  nature. 
When  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  met,  and  he  read  of  his  old  com 
panions  in  the  work  of  legislation  again  gathering  in  their  halls  and 
committee-rooms,  I  think,  for  at  least  a  day  or  two,  he  felt  a  longing 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  XXI 

to  be  among  them.  Daring  the  second  week  of  the  session  he  again 
entered  this  hall,  but  only  as  a  spectator.  The  greeting  he  received 
—  so  general,  spontaneous,  and  cordial — from  gentlemen  on  both 
sides  of  the  House,  touched  his  heart  most  sensibly.  The  crowd  that 
gathered  about  him  was  so  great  that  the  party  was  obliged  to  retire 
to  one  of  the  larger  anterooms  for  fear  of  interrupting  the  public 
business.  A  delightful  interview  among  old  friends  was  the  reward. 
He  was  charmed  with  his  reception,  and  mentioned  it  to  me  with  in 
tense  satisfaction.  Little  did  you,  gentlemen,  then  think  that  be 
tween  you  and  a  beloved  friend  the  curtain  that  shrouds  eternity 
was  so  soon  to  be  interposed.  His  sickness  was  of  about  a  week's 
duration.  Until  the  morning  of  the  day  preceding  his  death  his 
friends  never  doubted  his  recovery.  Later  in  the  day  very  unfavor 
able  symptoms  appeared,  and  all  then  realized  his  danger.  In  the 
evening  his  wife  spoke  to  him  of  a  visit,  for  one  day,  which  he  had 
projected,  to  his  old  friend  Mrs.  S.  F.  Du  Pont,  when  he  replied,  in 
the  last  words  he  ever  uttered,  "  It  shows  the  folly  of  making  plans 
even  for  a  day."  He  continued  to  fail  rapidly  in  strength  until  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  the  30th  of  December,  when 
HENKY  WINTEK  DAVIS,  in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  appeared 
before  his  God.  His  death  confirmed  the  opinion  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  who  declared,  "Marshaling  all  the  horrors  of  death,  and 
contemplating  the  extremities  thereof,  I  find  not  any  thing  therein 
able  to  daunt  the  courage  of  a  man,  much  less  a  well-resolved  Chris 
tian."  He  passed  away  so  quietly  that  no  one  knew  the  moment  of 
his  departure.  His  was 

"A  death-like  sleep, 
A  gentle  wafting  to  immortal  life." 

Mr.  Davis  left  a  widow,  Mrs.  Nancy  Davis,  a  daughter  of  John  B. 
Morris,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  and  two  little  girls,  who  were  the  idols  of 
his  heart.  He  was  married  a  second  time  on  the  26th  of  January, 
1857.  His  nearest  surviving  collateral  relation  is  the  Hon.  David 
Davis,  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
who  is  his  only  cousin — german.  To  all  these  afflicted  hearts  may 
God  be  most  gracious. 

Thus  has  the  country  lost  one  of  the  most  able,  eloquent,  and  fear 
less  of  its  defenders.  Called  from  this  life  at  an  acce  when  most  men 

O 

are  just  beginning  to  command  the  respect  and  confidence  of  their 
fellows,  he  has  left,  nevertheless,  a  fame  as  wide  as  our  vast  country. 
He  died  nineteen  years  younger  than  Washington,  and  eight  years 
younger  than  Lincoln.  At  forty-eight  years  of  age  Washington  had 
not  seen  the  glories  of  Yorktown  even  in  a  vision,  nor  had  Lincoln 


xxii  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

dreamed  of  the  presidential  chair,  and  if  they  had  died  at  that  age 
they  would  have  been  comparatively  unknown  in  history.  Doubt 
less  God  would  have  raised  up  other  leaders,  if  they  had  been  want 
ing,  to  conduct  the  great  American  column,  which  he  has  chosen  to 
be  the  body-guard  of  human  rights  and  hopes,  onward  among  the 
nations  and  the  centuries';  but  in  that  event  the  12th  and  22d  days 
of  February  would  not  be,  as  they  now  are,  held  sacred  in  our  cal 
endar. 

Mr.  Davis  had  gathered  into  his  house  the  literary  treasures  of 
four  languages,  and  had  reveled  in  spirit  with  the  wise  men  of  the 
ages.  He  had  conned  his  books  as  jealously  as  a  miner  peering  for 
gold,  and  had  not  left  a  panful  of  earth  unwashed.  He  had  collected 
the  purest  ore  of  truth  and  the  richest  gems  of  thought  until  he  was 
able  to  crown  himself  with  knowledge.  Blessed  with  a  felicitous 
power  of  analysis  and  a  prodigious  memory,  he  ransacked  history, 
ancient  and  modern,  sacred  and  profane ;  science,  pure,  empirical, 
and  metaphysical ;  the  arts,  mechanical  and  liberal ;  the  professions, 
law,  divinity,  and  medicine ;  poetry  and  the  miscellanies  of  litera 
ture  ;  and  in  all  these  great  departments  of  human  lore  he  moved  as 
easily  as  most  men  do  in  their  particular  province.  His  habit  was 
not  only  to  read,  but  to  reread  the  best  of  his  books  frequently,  and 
he  was  continually  supplying  himself  with  better  editions  of  his  fa 
vorites.  In  current,  playful  conversation  with  friends  he  quoted 
right  and  left,  in  brief  and  at  length,  from  the  classics,  ancient  and 
modern,  and  from  the  drama,  tragic  and  comic.  In  his  speeches,  on 
the  contrary,  he  quoted  but  little,  and  only  when  he  seemed  to  run 
upon  a  thought  already  expressed  by  some  one  else  with  singular 
force  and  appositeness.  He  was  the  best  scholar  I  ever  met  for  his 
years  and  active  life,  and  was  surpassed  by  very  few,  excepting  mere 
book-worms.  He  has  for  many  years  been  engaged  in  collecting  ex 
tracts  from  newspapers,  containing  the  leading  facts  and  public  doc 
uments  of  the  day,  but  he  never  commonplaced  from  books.  His 
thesaurus  was  his  head. 

I  have  but  little  personal  knowledge  of  Mr.  Davis  as  a  lawyer. 
It  was  never  my  good  fortune  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the  trial 
of  a  cause,  nor  have  I  ever  been  present  when  he  was  so  engaged. 
But  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  filled  a  high  position  at  the  bar,  and 
was  chosen  to  lead  against  the  most  distinguished  of  his  brethren. 
On  public  and  constitutional  questions,  as  distinguished  from  those 
involving  only  private  rights,  he  was  a  host,  and  in  the  argument  of 
the  cases  which  grew  out  of  the  adoption  of  the  new  Constitution  of 
Maryland  he  won  golden  laurels,  and  drew  extraordinary  encomiums 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  xxiii 

even  from  his  opponents  in  that  angry  litigation.  He  was  thorough 
ly  read  in  the  decisions,  of  the  federal  courts,  and  especially  in  those 
declaring  and  defining  constitutional  principles. 

Possessed  of  a  mind  of  remarkable  power,  scope,  and  activity ; 
with  an  immense  fund  of  precious  information,  ready  to  respond  to 
any  call  he  might  make  upon  it,  however  sudden  ;  wielding  a  system 
of  logic  formed  in  the  severest  school,  and  tried  by  long  practice ; 
gifted  with  a  rare  command  of  language  and  an  eloquence  wellnigh 
superhuman,  and  withal  graced  with  manners  the  most  accomplished 
and  refined,  and  a  person  unusually  handsome,  graceful,  and  attract 
ive,  Mr.  Davis  entered  public  life  with  almost  unparalleled  personal 
advantages.  Having  boldly  presented  himself  before  the  most  rigor 
ous  tribunal  in  the  world,  he  proved  himself  worthy  of  its  favor  and 
attention.  He  soon  rose  to  the  front  rank  of  debaters,  and  when 
ever  he  addressed  the  House  all  sides  gave  him  a  delighted  audience. 

I  shall  not  attempt  a  review  of  the  topics  discussed  in  the  Thirty- 
fourth  and  Thirty-fifth  Congresses.  The  day  was  fast  coming  when 
contests  for  the  speakership  and  battles  over  appropriation  bills — ay, 
even  the  fierce  struggle  over  Kansas,  would  sink  into  insignificance, 
and  Mr.  Davis,  with  that  political  prescience  for  which  he  was  al 
ways  remarkable,  seemed  to  discern  the  first  sign  of  the  coming 
storm.  The  winds  had  been  long  sown,  and  now  the  whirlwind  was 
to  be  reaped.  The  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  which  had  opened  so  in- 
auspiciously,  and  which  his  vote  had  saved  from  becoming  a  perpetu 
ated  bedlam,  met  for  its  second  session  on  the  3d  of  December,  1860, 
with  the  clouds  of  civil  war  fast  settling  down  upon  the  nation.  In 
the  hope  that  war  might  yet  be  averted,  on  the  fourth  day  of  the 
session  the  celebrated  committee  of  thirty-three  was  raised,  with  the 
lamented  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  as  chairman,  and  Mr.  Davis  as  the  mem 
ber  from  Maryland.  When  the  committee  reported,  Mr.  Davis  sus 
tained  the  majority  report  in  an  able  speech,  in  which,  after  urging 
every  argument  in  favor  of  the  report,  he  boldly  proclaimed  his  own 
views,  and  the  duties  of  his  state  and  country.  In  his  speech  of  7th 
February,  1861,  he  said, 

"I  do  not  wish  to  say  one  word  which  will  exasperate  the  already  too  much  in 
flamed  state  of  the  public  mind,  but  I  will  say  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  must  be  enforced;  and  they  who 
stand  across  the  path  of  that  enforcement  must  either  destroy  the  power  of  the 
United  States,  or  it  will  destroy  them" 

For  such  utterances  only  a  small  part  of  the  people  of  his  state  was 
on  that  day  prepared.  Seduced  by  the  wish,  they  still  believed  that 
the  Union  could  be  preserved  by  fair  and  mutual  concessions.  They 


xxiv  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

were  on  their  knees  praying  for  peace,  ignorant  that  bloody  war  had 
already  girded  on  his  sword.  His  language  was  then  deemed  too 
harsh  and  unconciliatory,  and  hundreds,  I  among  the  number,  de 
nounced  him  in  unmeasured  terms.  Before  the  expiration  of  three 
months  events  had  demonstrated  his  wisdom  and  our  folly,  and  other 
paragraphs  from  that  same  speech  became  the  fighting  creed  of  the 
Union  men  of  Maryland.  He  farther  said  on  that  occasion  : 

"But,  sir,  there  is  one  state  I  can  speak  for,  and  that  is  the  State  of  Maryland. 
Confident  in  the  strength  of  this  great  government  to  protect  every  interest,  grateful 
for  almost  a  century  of  unalloyed  blessings,  she  has  fomented  no  agitation  ;  she  has 
done  no  act  to  disturb  the  public  peace ;  she  has  rested  in  the  consciousness  that  if 
there  be  wrong,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  will  remedy  it ;  and  that  none 
exists  which  revolution  would  not  aggravate. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  here  this  day  to  speak,  and  I  say  that  I  do  speak,  for  the 
people  of  Maryland,  who  are  loyal  to  the  United  States;  and  that  when  my  judg 
ment  is  contested,  I  appeal  to  the  people  for  its  accuracy,  and  I  am  ready  to  main 
tain  it  before  them. 

"In  Maryland  we  are  dull,  and  can  not  comprehend  the  right  of  secession.  We 
do  not  recognize  the  right  to  make  a  revolution  by  a  vote.  We  do  not  recognize 
the  right  of  Maryland  to  repeal  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  if  any 
Convention  there,  called  by  whatever  authority,  under  whatever  auspices,  under 
take  to  inaugurate  revolution  in  Maryland,  their  authority  will  be  resisted  and  de 
fied  in  arms  on  the  soil  of  Maryland,  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Unit 
ed  States." 

In  January,  1861,  the  ensign  of  the  republic,  while  covering  a 
mission  of  mercy,  was  fired  on  by  traitors.  In  February  Jefferson 
Davis  said,  at  Stevenson,  Alabama,  "We  will  carry  war  where  it  is 
easy  to  advance,  where  food  for  the  sword  and  torch  await  our  ar 
mies  in  the  densely  populated  cities."  In  March,  the  Thirty-sixth 
Congress,  after  vainly  passing  conciliatory  resolutions  by  the  score — 
among  other  things  recommending  the  repeal  of  all  personal-liberty 
bills,  declaring  that  there  was  no  authority  outside  of  the  states 
where  slavery  was  recognized  to  interfere  with  slaves  or  slavery 
therein,  and  proposing  by  two-thirds  votes  of  both  houses  an  amend 
ment  of  the  Constitution  prohibiting  any  future  amendment  giving 
Congress  power  over  slavery  in  the  states — adjourned  amid  general 
terror  and  distress. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  having  passed  through  the  midst  of  his  ene 
mies,  appeared  at  Washington  in  due  time  and  delivered  his  inaugu 
ral,  closing  with  these  memorable  words : 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  mo 
mentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  government  will  not  assail  you. 

"You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.     You  can 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  XXV 

have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government,  while  I  shall  have  the 
most  solemn  one  to  '  preserve,  protect,  and  defend'  it. 

"I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  ene 
mies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 

"The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field  and  patriot 
grave  to  every  living  hearth  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell 
the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  as  they  will  be,  by  the  bet 
ter  angels  of  our  nature." 

Words  which,  if  human  hearts  do  not  harden  into  stone,  through 
the  long  ages  yet  to  come 

"Will  plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued,  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off." 

The  appeal  was  spurned ;  and,  in  the  face  of  its  almost  godlike 
gentleness,  they  who  already  gloried  in  their  anticipated  saturnalia 
of  blood  inhumanly  and  falsely  stigmatized  it  as  a  declaration  of  war. 
The  long-patient  North,  slow  to  anger,  in.  its  agony  still  cried,  "My 
brother — oh,  my  brother !"  It  remained  for  that  final,  ineradicable 
infamy  of  Sumter  to  arouse  the  nation  to  arms !  At  last,  to  murder 
at  one  blow  the  hopes  we  had  nursed  so  tenderly,  they  impiously 
dragged  in  the  dust  the  glorious  symbol  of  our  national  life  and  maj 
esty,  heaping  dishonor  upon  it,  and,  like  the  sneering  devil  at  the 
Crucifixion,  crying  out,  "  Come  and  deliver  thyself!"  and  then  no 
man,  with  the  heart  of  a  man,  who  loved  his  country  and  feared  his 
God,  dared  longer  delay  to  prepare  for  that  great  struggle  which 
was  destined  to  rock  the  earth. 

Poor  Maryland !  cursed  with  slavery,  doubly  cursed  with  tfaitors ! 
Mr.  Davis  had  said  that  Maryland  was  loyal  to  the  United  States, 
and  had  pledged  himself  to  maintain  that  position  before  the  people. 
The  time  soon  came  for  him  to  redeem  his  pledge.  On  the  morning 
of  the  14th  of  April  the  President  issued  his  proclamation  calling  a 
special  session  of  Congress,  which  made  an  extra  election  necessary 
in  Maryland.  Before  the  sun  of  that  day  had  gone  down  this  card 
was  promulgated : 

"  To  the  Voters  of  the  Fourth  Congressional  District  of  Maryland: 

"I  hereby  announce  myself  as  a  candidate  for  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  37th  Congress  of  the  United  States  of  America,  upon  the  basis  of  the  uncondi 
tional  maintenance  of  the  Union. 

"  Should  my  fellow-citizens  of  like  vieivs  manifest  their  preference  for  a  different 
candidate  on  that  basis,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  embarrass  them. 

"H.  WINTER  DAVIS. 
"April  15, 1861." 

But  dark  days  were  coming  for  Baltimore.  A  mob,  systematical 
ly  organized  in  complicity  with  the  rebels  at  Richmond  and  Harper's 


XXvi  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

Ferry,  seized  and  kept  in  subjection  an  unsuspecting  and  unarmed 
population  from  the  19th  to  the  24th  of  April.  For  six  days  murder 
and  treason  held  joint  sway;  and  at  the  conclusion  of  their  tragedy 
of  horrid  barbarities  they  gave  the  farce  of  holding  an  election  for 
members  of  the  House  of  Delegates. 

To  show  the  spirit  that  moved  Mr.  Davis  under  this  ordeal,  I  cite 
from  his  letter,  written  on  the  28th,  to  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  the 
following: 

"I  have  been  trying  to  collect  the  persons  appointed  scattered  by  the  storm,  and 
to  compel  them  to  take  their  offices  or  to  decline. 

"I  have  sought  men  of  undoubted  courage  and  capacity  for  the  places  vacated. 

"We  must  show  the  secessionists  that  we  are  not  frightened,  but  are  resolved  to 
maintain  the  government  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  functions  in  Maryland. 

"  We  have  organized  a  guard,  who  will  accompany  the  officers  and  hold  the  pub 
lic  buildings  against  all  the  secessionists  in  Maryland. 

"A  great  reaction  has  set  in.  If  we  now  act  promptly,  the  day  is  ours  and  the 
state  is  safe." 

These  matters  being  adjusted,  he  immediately  took  the  field  for 
Congress  on  his  platform  against  Mr.  Henry  May,  Conservative  Union, 
and  in  the  face  of  an  opposition  which  few  men  have  dared  to  en 
counter,  he  carried  on,  unremittingly  from  that  time  until  the  elec 
tion  on  the  13th  of  June,  the  most  brilliant  campaign  against  open 
traitors,  doubters,  and  dodgers,  that  unrivaled  eloquence,  courage, 
and  activity  could  achieve.  Every  where,  day  and  night,  in  sunshine 
and  storm,  in  the  market-houses,  at  the  street  corners,  and  in  the 
public  halls,  his  voice  rang  out  clear,  loud,  and  defiant  for  the  "  un 
conditional  maintenance"  of  the  Union.  He  was  defeated,  but  he 
sanctified  the  name  of  unconditional  union  in  the  vocabulary  of  ev 
ery  true  Marylander.  He  gathered  but  6000  votes  out  of  14,000,  yet 
the  result  was  a  triumph  which  gave  him  the  real  fruits  of  victory ; 
and  he  exclaimed  to  a  friend,  with  laudable  pride,  "  With  six  thou 
sand  of  the  working-men  of  Baltimore  on  my  side,  won  in  such  a  con 
test,  I  defy  them  to  take  the  state  out  of  the  Union."  Though  not 
elected,  he  never  ceased  his  efforts.  With  us  it  was  a  struggle  for 
homes,  hearths,  and  lives.  He  said  at  Brooklyn, 

"  You  see  the  conflagration  from  a  distance  ;  it  blisters  me  at  my  side.  You  can 
survive  the  integrity  of  the  nation  ;  we  in  Maryland  would  live  on  the  side  of  a  gulf, 
perpetually  tending  to  plunge  into  its  depths.  It  is  for  us  life  and  liberty ;  it  is  for 
you  greatness,  strength,  and  prosperity." 

Nothing  appalled  him;  nothing  deterred  him.  lie  said  at  Balti 
more  in  1861, 

"The  War  Department  has  been  taught  by  the  misfortune  at  Bull  Run,  which 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  xsvii 

has  broken  no  power  nor  any  spirit,  which  bowed  no  state  nor  made  any  heart  falter, 
which  was  felt  as  a  humiliation  that  has  brought  forth  wisdom." 

He  also  said,  speaking  of  the  rebels,  and  foretelling  his  own  fate 
if  they  succeeded  in  Maryland, 

"  They  have  inaugurated  an  era  of  confiscations,  proscriptions,  and  exiles.  Read 
their  acts  of  greedy  confiscation,  their  law  of  proscriptions  by  the  thousands.  Be 
hold  the  flying  exiles  from  the  unfriendly  soil  of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Mis 
souri." 

And  so  he  worked  on,  never  abating  one  jot  of  his  uncompromis 
ing  devotion  to  the  Union,  like  a  second  Peter  the  Hermit,  preaching 
a  cause,  as  he  believed,  truly  represented  by  insignia  as  sacred  as  the 
Cross,  and  for  which  no  sacrifice,  not  even  death,  was  too  great. 

But  his  crowning  glory  was  his  leadership  of  the  emancipation 
movement.  The  rebels,  notwithstanding  "  My  Maryland's"  bloody 
welcome  at  South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  claimed  that  she  must 
belong  to  their  confederacy  because  of  the  homogeneousness  of  her 
institutions.  They  contended  that  the  fetters  of  slavery  formed  a 
chain  that  stretched  across  the  Potomac,  and  held  in  bondage  not 
only  87,000  slaves,  but  600,000  white  people  also.  Their  constant 
theme  was  "  the  deliverance"  of  Maryland.  We  resolved  to  break 
that  last  tie,  and  to  take  position  unalterably  on  the  side  of  the  Union 
and  freedom,  and  thus  to  deal  the  final  blow  to  the  cause  and  sup 
port  of  rebellion.  We  organized  our  little  band,  almost  ridiculous 
from  its  want  of  numbers,  early  in  1863.  A  Sibley  tent  would  have 
held  our  whole  army.  Our  enemies  laughed  us  to  scorn,  and  the 
politicians  would  not  accept  our  help  on  any  terms,  but  denied  us  as 
earnestly  as  Peter  denied  his  Lord.  Mr.  Davis  was  our  acknowl 
edged  leader,  and  it  was  in  the  heat  and  fury  of  the  contest  which 
followed  that  our  hearts  were  welded  into  permanent  friendship. 
He  was  the  platform  maker,  and  he  announced  it  in  a  few  words : 

"A  hearty  support  of  the  entire  policy  of  the  national  administration,  including 
immediate  emancipation  by  constitutional  means." 

It  was  very  short,  but  it  covered  all  the  ground.  The  campaign 
opened  by  the  publication  of  an  address,  written  by  Mr.  Davis,  to 
the  people  of  Maryland,  which,  I  venture  to  say,  is  unsurpassed  by 
any  state  paper  published  in  this  age  of  able  state  papers  for  the 
warmth  and  vigor  of  its  diction,  and  the  lucidity  and  conclusiveness 
of  its  argumentation.  It  is  a  pamphlet  of  twenty  pages,  glowing 
throughout  with  the  unmistakable  marks  of  his  genius  and  patriot 
ism,  and  closing  with  these  words  of  stirring  cheer : 

"We  do  not  doubt  the  result,  and  expect,  freed  from  the  trammels  which  now 
bind  her,  to  see  Maryland,  at  no  distant  day,  rapidly  advancing  in  a  course  of  un- 


xxviii  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

examplcd  prosperity  with  her  sister  free  states  of  the  undivided  and  indivisible  re 
public." 

Mr.  Davis  was  ubiquitous.  He  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  whole 
contest.  He  arranged  the  order  of  battle,  dictated  the  correspond 
ence,  wrote  the  important  articles  for  the  newspapers,  and  addressed 
all  the  concerted  meetings.  In  short,  neither  his  voice  nor  his  pen 
rested  in  all  the  time  of  our  travail.  He  would  have  no  compromise, 
but  rejected  all  overtures  of  the  enemy  short  of  unconditional  surren 
der.  On  the  Eastern  Shore  he  spoke  with  irresistible  power  at  Elk- 
ton,  Easton,  Salisbury,  and  Snow  Hill,  at  each  of  the  three  last-named 
towns  with  a  crowd  of  wondering  "American  citizens  of  African  de 
scent"  listening  to  him  from  afar,  and  looking  upon  him  as  if  they 
believed  him  to  be  the  seraph  Abdiel.  His  last  appointment,  in  ex 
treme  southern  Maryland,  he  filled  on  Friday,  after  which,  bidding 
me  a  cordial  God-speed,  he  descended  from  the  stand,  sprang  into  an 
open  wagon  awaiting  him,  traveled  eighty  miles  through  a  raw  night- 
air,  reached  Cambridge  by  daylight,  and  then  crossed  the  Chesa 
peake,  sixty  miles,  in  time  to  close  the  campaign  with  one  of  his 
ringing  speeches  in  Monument  Square,  Baltimore,  on  Saturday  night. 
In  this,  our  first  contest,  we  were  completely  victorious. 

But  we  had  yet  a  weary  way  before  us.  The  Legislature  had  then 
to  pass  a  law  calling  a  Convention.  That  law  had  to  be  approved  by 
a  majority  of  the  people.  Members  of  the  Convention  had  then  to 
be  elected  in  all  parts  of  the  state,  and  the  Constitution  which  they 
adopted  had  to  be  carried  by  a  majority  of  the  popular  vote.  He 
allowed  himself  no  reprieve  from  labor  until  all  this  had  been  accom 
plished.  And  when  the  rest  of  us,  worn  out  by  incessant  toil,  gladly 
sought  rest,  he  went  before  the  Court  of  Appeals  to  maintain  every 
thing  that  had  been  done  against  all  comers,  and  did  so  triumphantly. 

Let  free  Maryland  never  forget  the  debt  of  eternal  gratitude  she 
owes  to  HEXKY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

If  oratory  means  the  power  of  presenting  thoughts  by  public  and 
sustained  speech  to  an  audience  in  the  manner  best  adapted  to  win  a 
favorable  decision  of  the  question  at  issue,  then  Mr.  Davis  assuredly 
occupied  the  highest  position  as  an  orator.  He  always  held  his  hear 
ers  in  rapt  attention  until  he  closed,  and  then  they  lingered  about  to 
discuss  with  one  another  what  they  had  heard.  I  have  seen  a  pro 
miscuous  assembly,  made  up  of  friends  and  opponents,  remain  ex 
posed  to  a  beating  rain  for  two  hours  rather  than  forego  hearing 
him.  Those  who  had  heard  him  most  frequently  were  always  ready 
to  make  the  greatest  effort  to  hear  him  again.  Even  his  bitterest 
enemies  have  been  known  to  stand  shivering  on  the  street  corners 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  xxix 

for  a  whole  evening,  charmed  by  his  marvelous  tongue.  His  stump 
efforts  never  fell  below  his  high  standard.  He  never  condescended 
to  a  mere  attempt  to  amuse.  He  always  spoke  to  instruct,  to  con 
vince,  and  to  persuade  through  the  higher  and  better  avenues  to  fa 
vor.  I  never  heard  him  deliver  a  speech  that  was  not  worthy  of  be 
ing  printed  and  preserved.  As  a  stump  orator  he  was  unapproach 
able,  in  my  estimation,  and  I  say  that  with  a  clear  recollection  of 
having  heard,  when  a  boy,  that  wonder  of  Yankee  birth  and  South 
ern  development,  S.  S.  Prentiss. 

Mr.  Davis's  ripe  scholarship  promptly  tendered  to  his  thought  the 
happiest  illustrations  and  the  most  appropriate  forms  of  expression. 
His  brain  had  become  a  teeming  cornucopia,  whence  flowed  in  ex- 
haustless  profusion  the  most  beautiful  flowers  and  the  most  substan 
tial  fruits;  and  yet  he  never  indulged  in  excessive  ornamentation. 
His  taste  was  most  austerely  chaste.  His  style  was  perspicuous, 
energetic,  concise,  and,  withal,  highly  elegant.  He  never  loaded  his 
sentences  with  meretricious  finery,  or  high-sounding,  supernumerary 
words.  When  he  did  use  the  jewelry  of  rhetoric,  he  would  quietly 
set  a  metaphor  in  his  page  or  throw  a  comparison  into  his  speech 
which  would  serve  to  light  up  with  startling  distinctness  the  colossal 
proportions  of  his  argument.  Of  humc"  he  had  none;  but  his  wit 
and  sarcasm  at  times  would  glitter  like  the  brandished  cimeter  of 
Saladin,  and,  descending,  would  cut  as  keenly.  The  pathetic  he 
never  attempted ;  but  when  angered  by  a  malicious  assault,  his  in 
vective  was  consuming,  and  his  epithets  would  wound  like  pellets  of 
lead.  Although  gallant  to  the  graces  of  expression,  he  always  com 
pelled  his  rhetoric  to  act  as  a  handmaid  to  his  dialectics. 

Style  may  sometimes  be  an  exotic ;  but  when  it  is,  it  is  sure  to 
partake  more  and  more,  as  years  increase,  of  the  peculiarities  of  the 
soil  wherein  it  is  nurtured.  But  the  style  of  Mr.  Davis  was  indig 
enous,  and  strongly  marked  by  his  individuality.  Although  he  doubt 
less  admired,  and  perhaps  imitated,  the  condensation  and  dignity  of 
Gibbon,  yet  it  is  certain  that  he  carefully  avoided  the  monotonous 
stateliness  and  the  elaborate  and  ostentatious  art  of  that  most  erudite 
historian.  I  look  in  vain  for  his  model  in  the  skeptical  Gibbon,  the 
cynical  Bolingbroke,  or  the  gorgeous  Burke.  These  were  all  to  him 
intellectual  giants,  but  giants  of  false  belief  and  practice.  Not  even 
from  Tacitus,  upon  whom  he  looked  with  the  greatest  favor,  could 
he  have  acquired  his  burning  and  impressive  diction. 

HEXEY  WINTER  DAVIS  was  a  man  of  faith,  and  believed  in  Christ 
and  his  fellow-man.  His  heart  and  mind  were  both  nourished  into 
their  full  dimensions  under  the  fostering  influences  of  our  free  insti- 


XXX  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

tutions,  so  that,  being  reared  a  freeman,  he  thought  and  spake  as 
became  a  freeman.  "No  other  land  could  have  produced  such  daunt 
less  courage  and  such. heroic  devotion  to  honest  conviction  in  a  pub 
lic  man,  and  even  our  land  has  produced  but  few  men  of  his  stamp 
and  ability.  His  implicit  faith  in  God's  eternal  justice,  and  his  grand 
moral  courage,  imparted  to  him  his  proselyting  zeal,  and  gave  him 
that  amazing,  kindling  power  which  enabled  him  to  light  the  fires  of 
enthusiasm  wherever  he  touched  the  public  mind. 

To  show  his  power  in  extemporaneous  debate,  as  well  as  his  de 
termined  patriotism,  I  will  introduce  a  passage  from  his  speech  of 
April  11,  1864,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  You 
will  remember  that  the  end  of  the  rebellion  had  not  then  appeared. 
Grant,  with  his  invincible  legions,  had  not  started  to  execute  that 
greatest  military  movement  of  modern  times,  by  which,  after  months 
of  bloody  persistence,  hurling  themselves  continually  against  what 
seemed  the  frowning  front  of  destiny,  they  finally  drove  the  enemy 
from  his  strong-holds,  made  Fortune  herself  captive,  and,  binding  her 
to  their  standards,  held  her  there  until  the  surrender  of  every  rebel 
in  arms  closed  the  war  amid  the  exultant  plaudits  of  men  and  angels. 
Our  hopes  had  not  then  grown  into  victory,  and  we  looked  forward 
anxiously  to  the  terrible  march  from  the  Rappahannock  to  Rich 
mond.  Thinking  that  perhaps  our  army  stood  appalled  before  the 
great  duty  required  of  it,  and  that  the  people  might  be  diverted  from 
their  purpose  to  crush  the  rebellion  when  they  saw  that  it  could  only 
be  accomplished  at  the  cost  of  an  ocean  of  human  blood,  a  call  was 
made  on  the  floor  of  the  American  Congress  for  a  recognition  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  Speaking  for  the  nation,  Mr.  Davis  said  : 

"  But,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  it  be  said  that  a  time  may  come  when  the  question  of  rec 
ognizing  the  Southern  Confederacy  will  have  to  be  answered,  I  admit  it.  *  *  *  * 
When  the  people,  exhausted  by  taxation,  weary  of  sacrifices,  drained  of  blood,  be 
trayed  by  their  rulers,  deluded  by  demagogues  into  believing  that  peace  is  the  way 
to  union,  and  submission  the  path  to  victory,  shall  throw  down  their  arms  before 
the  advancing  foe ;  when  vast  chasms  across  every  state  shall  make  it  apparent  to 
every  eye,  when  too  late  to  remedy  it,  that  division  from  the  South  is  anarchy  at 
the  North,  and  that  peace  without  union  is  the  end  of  the  republic,  then  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  South  will  be  an  accomplished  fact,  and  gentlemen  may,  without 
treason  to  the  dead  republic,  rise  in  this  migratory  house,  wherever  it  may  then  be 
in  America,  and  declare  themselves  for  recognizing  their  masters  at  the  South  rather 
than  exterminating  them.  Until  that  day,  in  the  name  of  the  American  nation  ;  in 
the  name  of  every  house  in  the  land  where  there  is  one  dead  for  the  holy  cause ; 
in  the  name  of  those  who  stand  before  us  in  the  ranks  of  battle ;  in  the  name  of 
the  liberty  our  ancestors  have  confided  to  us,  I  devote  to  eternal  execration  the 
name  of  him  who  shall  propose  to  destroy  this  blessed  land  rather  than  its  enemies. 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

"But,  until  that  time  arrive,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  American  people  there 
shall  be  xo  compromise ;  that  ruin  to  ourselves  or  ruin  to  the  Southern  rebels  are 
the  only  alternatives.  It  is  only  by  resolutions  of  this  kind  that  nations  can  rise 
above  great  dangers  and  overcome  them  in  crises  like  this.  It  was  only  by  turning 
France  into  a  camp,  resolved  that  Europe  might  exterminate  but  should  not  subju 
gate  her,  that  France  is  the  leading  empire  of  Europe  to-day.  It  is  by  such  a  re 
solve  that  the  American  people,  coercing  a  reluctant  government  to  draw  the  sword 
and  stake  the  national  existence  on  the  integrity  of  the  republic,  are  now  any  thing 
but  the  fragments  of  a  nation  before  the  world,  the  scorn  and  hiss  of  every  petty 
tyrant.  It  is  because  the  people  of  the  United  States,  rising  to  the  height  of  the 
occasion,  dedicated  this  generation  to  the  sword,  and  pouring  out  the  blood  of  their 
children  as  of  no  account,  and  vowing  before  high  Heaven  that  there  should  be  no 
end  to  this  conflict  but  ruin  absolute  or  absolute  triumph,  that  we  now  are  what  we 
are ;  that  the  banner  of  the  republic,  still  pointing  onward,  floats  proudly  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy ;  that  vast  regions  are  reduced  to  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  that 
a  great  host  in  armed  array  now  press  with  steady  step  into  the  dark  regions  of  the 
rebellion.  It  is  only  by  the  earnest  and  abiding  resolution  of  the  people  that,  what 
ever  shall  be  our  fate,  it  shall  be  grand  as  the  American  nation,  worthy  of  that  re 
public  which  first  trod  the  path  of  empire,  and  made  no  peace  but  under  the  banners 
of  victory,  that  the  American  people  will  survive  in  history.  And  that  will  save  us. 
We  shall  succeed,  and  not  fail.  I  have  an  abiding  confidence  in  the  firmness,  the 
patience,  the  endurance  of  the  American  people ;  and,  having  vowed  to  stand  in 
history  on  the  great  resolve  to  accept  of  nothing  but  victory  or  ruin,  victory  is  ours. 
And  if  with  such  heroic  resolve  we  fall,  we  fall  with  honor,  and  transmit  the  name 
of  liberty,  committed  to  our  keeping,  untarnished,  to  go  down  to  future  generations. 
The  historian  of  our  decline  and  fall,  contemplating  the  ruins  of  the  last  great  re 
public,  and  drawing  from  its  fate  lessons  of  wisdom  on  the  waywardness  of  men, 
shall  drop  a  tear  as  he  records  with  sorrow  the  vain  heroism  of  that  people  who 
dedicated  and  sacrificed  themselves  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  by  their  example 
will  keep  alive  her  worship  in  the  hearts  of  men  till  happier  generations  shall  learn 
tc  walk  in  her  paths.  Yes,  sir,  if  we  must  fall,  let  our  last  hours  be  stained  by  no 
weakness.  If  we  must  fall,  let  us  stand  amid  the  crash  of  the  falling  republic  and 
be  buried  in  its  ruins,  so  that  history  may  take  note  that  men  lived  in  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  worthy  of  a  better  fate,  but  chastised  by  God  for  the  sins 
of  their  forefathers.  Let  the  ruins  of  the  republic  remain  to  testify  to  the  latest 
generations  our  greatness  and  our  heroism.  And  let  Liberty,  crownless  and  child 
less,  sit  upon  these  ruins,  crying  aloud  in  a  sad  wail  to  the  nations  of  the  world, 
'I  nursed  and  brought  up  children,  and  they  have  rebelled  against  me.'  " 

Mr.  Davis's  most  striking  characteristics  were  his  devotion  to 
principle  and  his  indomitable  courage.  There  never  was  a  moment 
when  he  could  be  truthfully  charged  with  trimming  or  insincerity. 
His  views  were  always  clearly  avowed  and  fearlessly  maintained. 
He  hated  slavery,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  it.  He  remem 
bered  the  lessons  of  his  youth,  and  his  heart  rebelled  against  the  in 
justice  of  the  system.  His  antipathy  was  deeply  grounded  in  his 


XXxii  ORATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

convictions,  and  he  could  not  be  dissuaded,  nor  frightened,  nor  driven 
from  expressing  it. 

He  was  not  a  great  captain  nor  a  mighty  ruler;  he  was  only  one 
of  the  people,  but,  nevertheless,  a  hero.  Born  under  the  flag  of  a 
nation  which  claimed  for  its  cardinal  principle  of  government  that 
all  men  are  created  free,  yet  held  in  abject  slavery  four  millions  of 
human  beings ;  which  erected  altars  to  the  living  God,  yet  denied  to 
creatures  formed  in  the  image  of  God,  and  charged  with  the  custody 
of  immortal  souls,  the  common  rights  of  humanity,  he  declared  that 
the  hateful  inconsistency  should  cease  to  defile  the  prayers  of  Chris 
tians  and  stultify  the  advocates  of  freedom.  No  dreamer  was  he, 
no  mere  theorist,  but  a  worker,  and  a  strong  one,  who  did  well  the 
work  committed  to  him.  He  entered  upon  his  self-imposed  task- 
when  surrounded  by  slaves  and  slave-owners.  He  stood  face  to  face 
with  the  iniquitous  superstition,  and  to  their  teeth  defied  its  wor 
shipers.  To  make  proselytes  he  had  to  conquer  prejudices,  correct 
traditions,  elevate  duty  above  interest,  and  induce  men  who  had 
been  the  propagandists  of  slavery  to  become  its  destroyers.  Think 
you  his  work  was  easy?  Count  the  long  years  of  his  unequal  strife; 
gather  from  the  winds,  which  scattered  them,  the  curses  of  his  foes ; 
suifer  under  all  the  annoyances  and  insults  which  malice  and  false 
hood  can  invent,  and  you  will  then  understand  how  much  of  heart 
and  hope,  of  courage  and  self-relying  zeal,  were  required  to  make 
him  what  he  was,  and  to  qualify  him  to  do  what  he  did.  And  what 
did  he?  "When  the  rough  hand  of  war  had  stripped  off  the  pretexts 
which  enveloped  the  rebellion,  and  it  became  evident  that  slavery 
had  struck  at  the  life  of  the  republic,  unmindful  of  consequences  to 
himself,  he,  among  the  first,  arraigned  the  real  traitor  and  demanded 
the  penalty  of  death.  The  denunciations  that  fell  upon  him  like  a 
cloud  wrapped  him  in  a  mantle  of  honor,  and  more  truthfully  than 
the  great  Roman  orator  he  could  have  exclaimed,  "Eyo  hoc  animo 
semper  fid,  ut  invidiam  virtute  partam,  gloriam  non  invidia  pu- 
tarem" 

This  man,  so  stern  and  inflexible  in  the  execution  of  a  purpose,  so 
rigorous  of  his  demands  of  other  men  in  behalf  of  a  principle,  so  in 
different  to  preferment  and  all  base  objects  of  pursuit,  had  a  monitor 
to  whom  he  always  gave  an  open  ear  and  a  prompt  assent.  It  was 
no  demon  like  that  which  attended  Socrates,  no  witch  like  that  in 
voked  by  Saul,  no  fiend  like  that  to  which  Faust  resigned  himself. 
A  vision  of  light,  and  life,  and  beauty  flitted  ever  palpably  before 
him,  and  wooed  him  to  the  perpetual  service  of  the  good  and  true. 
The  memory  of  a  pious  and  beloved  mother  permeated  his  whole 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  xxxiii 

moral  being,  and  kept  warm  within  him  the   tenderest  affection. 
Hear  how  he  wrote  of  her: 

"My  mother  was  a  lady  of  graceful  and  simple  manners,  fair  complexion,  blue 
eyes,  and  auburn  hair,  with  a  rich  and  exquisite  voice,  that  still  thrills  my  memory 
with  the  echo  of  its  vanished  music.  She  was  highly  educated  for  her  day,  when 
Annapolis  was  the  focus  of  intellect  and  fashion  for  Maryland,  and  its  fruits  shone 
through  her  conversation,  and  colored  and  completed  her  natural  eloquence,  which 
my  father  used  to  say  would  have  made  her  an  orator,  if  it  had  not  been  thrown 
away  on  a  woman.  She  was  the  incarnation  of  all  that  is  Christian  in  life  and 
hope,  in  charity  and  thought,  ready  for  every  good  work,  herself  the  example  of  all 
she  taught." 

It  was  the  force  of  her  precept  and  example  that  formed  the  man, 
and  supplied  him  with  his  shield  and  buckler.  His  private  life  was 
spotless.  His  habits  were  regular  and  abstemious,  and  his  practice 
in  close  conformity  with  the  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  He  invariably  attended  divine  service  on  Sunday,  and 
confined  himself  for  the  remainder  of  the  day  to  a  course  of  religious 
reading.  If  from  his  father  he  drew  a  courage  and  a  fierce  determ 
ination  before  which  his  enemies  fled  in  confusion,  from  his  mother 
he  inherited  those  milder  qualities  that  won  for  him  friends  as  true 
and  devoted  as  man  ever  possessed.  Some  have  said  he  was  hard 
and  dictatorial.  They  had  seen  him  only  when  a  high  resolve  had 
fired  his  breast,  and  when  the  gleam  of  battle  had  lighted  his  counte 
nance.  His  friends  saw  deeper,  and  knew  that  beneath  the  exterior 
he  assumed  in  his  struggles  with  the  world  there  beat  a  heart  as 
pure  and  unsullied,  as  confiding  and  as  gentle,  as  ever  sanctified  the 
domestic  circle,  or  made  loved  ones  happy.  His  heart  reminded  me 
of  a  spring  among  the  hills  of  the  Susquehauna  to  which  I  often  re 
sorted  in  my  youth ;  around  a  part  of  it  we  boys  had  built  a  stone 
wall  to  protect  it  from  outrage,  while  on  the  side  next  home  we  left 
open  a  path,  easily  traveled  by  familiar  feet,  and  leading  straight  to 
the  sweet  and  perennial  waters  within. 

He  lived  to  hear  the  salvos  that  announced,  after  more  than  two 
centuries  of  bondage,  the  redemption  of  his  native  state.  He  lived 
to  vote  for  that  grand  act  of  enfranchisement  that  wiped  from  the 
escutcheon  of  the  nation  the  leprous  stain  of  slavery,  and  to  know 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  no  longer  recognized  and 
protected  property  in  man.  He  lived  to  witness  the  triumph  of  his 
country  in  its  desperate  struggle  with  treason,  and  to  behold  all  its 
enemies  either  wanderers,  like  Cain,  over  the  earth,  or  suppliants  for 
mercy  at  her  feet.  He  lived  to  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  the  coming 
glory  of  that  new  era  of  progress  that  matchless  valor  had  won 

C 


xxxiv  OKATION  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

through  the  blood  and  carnage  of  a  thousand  battle-fields.  He 
lived,  through  all  the  storm  of  war,  to  see,  at  last,  America  rejuvena 
ted,  rescued  from  the  grasp  of  despotism,  and  rise  victorious,  with 
her  garments  purified  and  her  brow  radiant  with  the  unsullied  light 
of  liberty.  He  lived  to  greet  the  return  of  "  meek-eyed  peace,"  and 
then  he  gently  laid  his  head  upon  her  bosom,  and  breathed  out  there 
his  noble  spirit. 

The  sword  may  rust  in  its  scabbard,  and  so  let  it ;  but  free  men, 
with  free  thought  and  free  speech,  will  wage  unceasing  war  until 
truth  shall  be  enthroned  and  sit  empress  of  the  world.  Would  to 
God  that  he  had  been  spared  to  complete  a  life  of  threescore  and  ten 
years,  for  the  sake  of  his  country  and  posterity.  When  I  think  of 
the  good  he  would  have  accomplished  had  he  survived  for  twenty 
years,  I  can  say,  in  the  language  of  Fisher  Ames,  "  My  heart,  pene 
trated  with  the  remembrance  of  the  man,  grows  liquid  as  I  speak, 
and  I  could  pour  it  out  like  water." 

At  the  portals  of  his  tomb  we  may  bid  farewell  to  the  faithful 
Christian,  in  the  full  assurance  that  a  blessed  life  awaits  him  beyond 
the  grave.  Serenely  and  trustfully  he  has  passed  from  our  sight  and 
gone  down  into  the  dark  waters. 

"  So  sinks  the  day-star  in  the  ocean  bed, 
And  yet  anon  repairs  his  drooping  head, 
And  tricks  his  beams,  and  with  new-spangled  ore 
Flames  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky." 

From  this  hall,  where  as  scholar,  statesman,  and  orator  he  shone 
so  brightly,  he  has  disappeared  forever.  Never  again  will  he,  an 
swering  to  the  roll-call  from  this  desk,  respond  for  his  country  and 
the  rights  of  man.  No  more  shall  we  hear  his  fervid  eloquence  in 
the  day  of  imminent  peril,  invoking  us,  who  hold  the  mighty  power 
of  peace  and  war,  to  dedicate  ourselves,  if  need  be,  to  the  sword,  but 
to  accept  no  end  of  the  conflict  save  that'  of  absolute  triumph  for  our 
country.  He  has  gone  to  answer  the  great  roll-call  above,  where  the 
"  brazen  throat  of  Avar"  is  voiceless  in  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  Let  us  habitually  turn  to  his  recorded  words,  and  gather 
wisdom  as  from  the  testament  of  a  departed  sage ;  and  since  we  were 
witnesses  of  his  tireless  devotion  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  let 
us  direct  that  on  the  monument  which  loving  hearts  and  willing 
hands  will  soon  erect  over  his  remains,  there  shall  be  deeply  en 
graved  the  figure  of  a  bursting  shackle  as  the  emblem  of  the  faith  in 
which  he  lived  and  died. 

For  the  Christian,  scholar,  statesman,  and  orator,  all  good  men  are 


OF  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS.  XXXV 

mourners ;  but  what  shall  I  say  of  that  grief  which  none  can  share — 
the  grief  of  sincere  friendship  ? 

Oh,  my  friend!  comforted  by  the  belief  that  you,  while  living, 
deemed  me  worthy  to  be  your  companion,  and  loaded  me  with  the 
proofs  of  your  esteem,  I  shall  fondly  treasure,  during  my  remaining 
years,  the  recollection  of  your  smile  and  counsel.  Lost  to  me  is  the 
strong  arm  whereon  I  have  so  often  leaned ;  but  in  that  path  which 
in  time  past  we  trod  most  joyfully  together,  I  shall  continue,  as  God 
shall  give  me  to  see  my  duty,  with  unfaltering  though  perhaps  with 
unskillful  steps,  right  onward  to  the  end. 

Admiring  his  brilliant  intellect  and  varied  acquirements,  his  invin 
cible  courage  and  unswerving  fortitude,  glorying  in  his  good  works 
and  fair  renown,  but,  more  than  all,  loving  the  man^  I  shall  endeavor 
to  assuage  the  bitterness  of  grief  by  applying  to  him  those  words  of 
proud,  though  tearful  satisfaction,  from  which  the  faithful  Tacitus 
drew  consolation  for  the  loss  of  that  noble  Roman  whom  he  delight 
ed  to  honor : 

"  Quidquid  ex  Agricola  amavimus,  quidquid  mirati  sumus,  manet  mansnrumquc 
est,  in  animis  hominum,  in  teternitate  temporum,  fama  rerum." 


SPEECHES  AND  ADDRESSES 


OP 


HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 


A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY  AGAINST  THE 
SECTIONS. 

Mr.  DAVIS  was  elected,  in  November,  1855,  by  the  American  party, 
from  the  fourth  district  of  Maryland,  to  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress,  and 
commenced  his  service  there  on  the  3d  of  December  following. 

So  soon  as  the  House  met  began  that  memorable  contest  for  the  elec 
tion  of  Speaker,  which  continued  from  that  day  till  the  2d  of  February, 
1856,  when,  upon  the  hundred  and  thirty-third  vote  (being  the  fourth 
after  the  adoption  of  the  plurality  rule,  on  motion  of  Mr.  S.  A.  Smith, 
of  Tennessee),  Mr.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts,  was  declared  to  be  elected. 

Throughout  all  those  votes  Mr.  Davis  steadily  refused  to  support  any 
of  the  candidates  named  by  either  the  Democratic  or  Republican  par 
ties,  and  persistently  voted  for  Mr.  Fuller,  of  Pennsylvania,  upon  the 
final  and  decisive  roll-call,  when  his  colleagues  from  Maryland  passed 
over  to  the  support  of  Mr.  Aiken,  of  South  Carolina,  then  the  Demo 
cratic  candidate.  During  that  long  struggle,  the  gentlemen  named  for 
that  place  were  interrogated  as  to  their  political  views  and  opinions, 
and  their  intentions  in  regard  to  the  organization  of  the  House.  As 
the  candidates  of  the  two  great  parties  had  declined  or  evaded  the  ques 
tions,  a  resolution  was  proposed  on  the  1 1th  of  January  "  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  all  candidates  for  political  position  frankly  and  fully  to  state 
their  opinions  upon  important  political  questions  involved  in  their  elec 
tion,  and  especially  when  interrogated  by  the  body  of  electors  whose 
votes  they  are  seeking."  In  giving  their  votes  upon  this  resolution 
(adopted  by  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  to  thirty-eight),  many  of  the  mem 
bers  made  short  statements  of  their  reasons  therefor.  In  so  doing,  Mr. 
Davis  first  invited  the  House  to  hear  him  in  such  manner  as  to  com 
mand  its  marked  attention,  and  to  confirm  among  the  members  the  im 
pression  as  to  his  powers  which  had  preceded  him  there. 

Mr.  Davis  was  named,  although  this  was  his  first  term  of  service,  on 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means ;  and  his  first  speech  in  the  House 
was  delivered  on  the  12th  of  March,  1856,  upon  a  resolution  reported 
from  the  Committee  of  Elections,  in  the  contested  election  case  from  the 
Territory  of  Kansas,  empowering  that  committee  to  serfd  for  persons 
and  papers.  The  argument  was  confined  to  the  points  of  parliamentary 
practice,  due  order  of  proceeding,  and  to  the  questions  of  administration 


40  A  PLEA  FOB  THE  COUNTRY 

of  political  law.  It  may  be  found  reported  in  the  Congressional  Globe, 
vol.  xli.,  p.  227  ;  and  as  it  did  not  refer,  except  incidentally,  to  the  polit 
ical  condition  of  the  country,  it  has  not  been  thought  proper  to  be  in 
cluded  in  this  collection.  During  the  same  session  he  also  took  some 
part  in  the  discussions  in  regard  to  the  proposed  amendment  of  the  Nat 
uralization  Laws  (March  25),  the  Election  Bill  for  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia,  the  Deficiency  Bill,  the  bill  for  the  remission  of  duties  on  goods 
destroyed  (in  warehouse)  by  fire,  and  the  Civil  and  Legislative  Appro 
priation  Bills. 

The  three  great  political  parties,  American,  Democratic,  and  Repub 
lican,  had  now  (July,  185G)  nominated  Mr.  Fillmore,  Mr.  Buchanan,  and 
Mr.  Fremont  as  their  respective  candidates  for  the  Presidency.  The 
election  was  to  be  held  in  November.  The  country  was  excited  to  the 
highest  degree.  In  the  Southern  States  threats  of  revolution  and  seces 
sion  were  openly  made ;  and  secret  meetings  of  the  governors  of  those 
states  were  held,  at  which  measures  were  concerted  for  joint  action  and 
a  separate  confederacy  in  case  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Fremont.  The 
Congress  was  about  to  rise,  after  a  most  protracted  and  excited  session. 
The  bitterness  and  exasperation  of  party  feeling  was  daily  increasing ; 
it  had  shown  itself  not  only  in  violent  recrimination  and  abusive  lan 
guage  in  debate,  but  in  disgraceful  scenes  of  personal  violence  on  the 
floor  of  the  House.  The  members  were  anxious  to  return  to  their 
homes,  and  to  begin  there  the  work  of  stirring  up  anew  the  passions  and 
prejudices  of  each  section  for  the  great  contest  in  November. 

It  was  when  this  feeling  had  nearly  reached  its  height,  and  under  such 
a  condition  of  affairs,  that  Mr.  Davis,  in  the  evening  session  of  the 'House 
on  the  7th  of  August,  1856  (the  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  State  of  the  Union),  spoke  as  follows : 

"Is  Philip  dead?  No,  by  Jove!  but  be  is  sick."  Such  was 
the  chatter  of  the  factious  demagogues  of  Athens,  chilled  by  the 
shadow  of  the  coming  Cheronea. 

"Will  Fillmore  decline?  "No;  but  he  is  too  weak  to  get  a 
single  state  !"  say  Democrat  and  [Republican,  shivering  before  the 
blast  of  the  coming  November. 

Mr.  Chairman,  they  consult  prophets  who  prophesy  pleasant 
things.  Their  hopes  are  the  oracles  speaking  by  the  inspiration 
of  their  interests ;  and  yet,  while  they  trust  to  the  prophecy  to 
produce  its  accomplishment,  they  confidentially  sigh,  "  Would  it 
were  bedtime,  Hal,  and  all  well!"  That  bedtime  will  surely 
come,  but  whether  the  couch  of  victory  or  the  bed  of  death  be 
spread — ah !  that's  the  question.  Sir,  a  party  at  brag  and  bluff  is 
a  suspicious  witness  to  the  goodness  of  his  own  hand,  and  the  by- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  41 

slanders,  I  believe,  do  not  usually  regard  him  as  a  better  witness 
of  the  badness  of  bis  adversary's. 

If  Democrat  and  Eepublican  bave  conspired  together  to  play 
by-bidder  at  each  other's  mock  auction — to  put  off  on  the  country 
plated  brass  for  gold — the  people  will  have  the  sagacity  to  see 
that,  though  Liberty  be  on  one  side,  the  image  and  superscription 
of  the  Union  is  not  on  the  other,  and  the  lacking  weight  will  re 
veal  the  counterfeit. 

I  desire  to  make  this  discrimination.  I  wish  to  inquire  into 
the  weight  of  this  style  of  brag,  which  has,  to  my  poor  under 
standing,  exhausted  the  resources  of  opponents. 

Say  the  Democrats,  "  Do  not  vote  for  Mr.  Fillmore,  because  he 
can  not  get  a  single  state  at  the  North."  Say  the  Republicans, 
"Do  not  vote  for  Mr. Fillmore,  because  he  can  not  get  a  single 
state  at  the  South."  And  both  are  so  simple  as  to  suppose,  by 
thus  excluding  him  from  the  regions  of  their  opponents,  that  they 
have  finally  dealt  with  his  pretensions. 

"Why  is  it  that  two  parties,  as  wide  apart  as  the  southern  and 
northern  poles,  have  conspired  together,  in  this  significant  and 
novel  way,  for  the  purpose  of  denying  to  their  most  dangerous 
opponent  strength  in  the  regions  where  the  adversary  of  each  is 
strong  ?  There  are  two  organized  parties  in  this  country  which 
claim  to  represent  adverse  local  interests.  The  Democratic  party 
rests  itself  on  its  boasted  and  self-arrogated  privilege  of  support 
ing  and  sustaining  the  peculiar  institution  of  the  South.  Its 
strength,  and  its  whole  strength,  consists  in  its  assertion  that  it 
alone  is  the  defender  of  Southern  rights.  It  is  therefore  danger 
ous  to  them  for  any  thing  to  arise  within  the  limits  of  the  South, 
and  claim  a  hearing  from  the  Southern  people,  which  touches 
more  nearly  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  appeals  to  the  more  ele 
vated  and  noble  sentiments  of  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union.  The  gentlemen  of  the  Eepublican  party  of  the  North 
aspire  to  represent  that  sentiment  which  is  likewise  local  and  pe 
culiarly  confined  to  the  boundary  of  the  North,  and  having  no 
power  beyond  it.  They  likewise  are  jealous  of  the  intrusion  on 
their  domain  of  any  topic  of  such  stirring  interest  as  will  call  the 
minds  of  the  North  away  from  the  contemplation  of  the  perpet 
ual  cry,  "Freedom  is  national,  and  slavery  is  sectional;"  "The 
rights  of  man ;"  "  The  oppressions  of  the  South ;"  "  The  equality 
of  the  negro  race." 


42  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

All  these  minister  to  the  excitement  in  the  North.  They  are 
subjects  in  themselves  neither  interesting  nor  attractive — not  so 
interesting  or  attractive  but  that  an  appeal  to  the  great  interests 
of  the  country,  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  the  great  danger  of  the  agitation  of  these  topics,  may  pos 
sibly  reach  the  ear  of  the  most  besotted,  and  startle  the  reason  of 
those  who  are  still  rational,  that  they  whose  talk  is  of  negroes, 
and  who  think  that  the  servants  at  the  altar  should  live  of  the 
altar,  may  find  themselves  preaching  to  empty  benches.  One, 
therefore,  and  the  other,  each  within  his  own  region,  seeks  to 
drive  out  every  thing  that  may  sow  wheat  among  his  tares.  They 
may  touch  any  thing  else  but  these  rights  of  sovereignty ;  but 
put  forth  your  hand  and  touch  them  in  the  very  body  of  their 
power,  and  they  arise  and  curse  you  to  your  face. 

The  Democrat  is  jealous  of  any  thing  which  impeaches  the 
high  duty  of  extending  the  institution,  and  is  impatient  of  men 
who  accept  it  as  an  existing  institution,  to  be  protected  as  any 
other  industrial  interest  is  to  be  protected. 

The  Eepublican  tolerates  no  man  who  questions  the  practical 
honesty  of  the  higher  law,  and  suggests  the  conscientious  duty  of 
conformity  to  the  practical  enforcement  of  the  Constitution.  Both 
cry  out  "  No  compromise ;"  both  execrate  all  adherence  to  the 
existing  condition  of  affairs  as  wisest  and  best.  Each  boasts  con 
quests  in  the  future  over  his  antagonist ;  each  lives,  and  moves, 
and  has  its  being  in  an  atmosphere  confined  to  its  own  region ;  it 
can  not  breathe  a  moment  the  air  on  which  the  other  thrives. 
Neither  has  any  representative  in  the  region  of  its  adversary  to 
soften  their  antagonism.  They  are  both  strictly  sectional  parties, 
tending  to  bring  into  collision  hostile  opinions,  feelings,  and  inter 
ests,  concentrated  without  mixture  at  the  opposite  poles  of  the 
country;  each  intensified,  like  opposite  electricities,  by  the  in 
tensity  of  the  other,  and  threatening,  if  brought  into  contact,  an 
explosion  that  may  shake  the  foundations  of  the  republic.  Each 
knows  that,  unless  it  can  keep  exclusive  control  of  the  whole  re 
gion,  there  is  no  hope  of  triumph  or  even  of  a  collision. 

In  this  lies  at  once  their  strength  and  their  weakness.  Unless 
Mr.  Buchanan  can  carry  the  whole  South,  and  trust — not  to  party 
discipline,  for  that  has  died  away,  but — to  the  chance  of  the  bribe 
of  high  office  to  persons  in  the  North  to  make  up  the  deficiency  of 
the  Southern  vote,  they  have  not  the  most  remote  prospect  of  sue- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  43 

ceeding  in  carrying  him  to  the  presidential  chair;  and  our  Re 
publican  friends  on  the  other  side,  with  equal  reason,  based  on 
equally  notorious  facts,  know,  if  the  State  of  New  York  is  stricken 
from  them,  they  are  a  powerless  minority  out  of  doors,  and  that 
no  nominee  of  theirs  can  darken  the  doors  of  the  White  House. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  because  of  their  strength,  but  because  of  their 
weakness,  that  the  one  and  the  other  seek  to  produce  the  impres 
sion  which  it  is  possible,  and  in  charity  ought  to  be  conceded, 
each  believes,  but  which  it  is  difficult  for  men  who,  like  myself, 
hold  a  moderate  and  middle  position,  not  to  regard  in  a  very  dif 
ferent  light.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  each  party,  deluded  into 
the  idea  that  it  is  enthroned  in  the  exclusive  control  of  its  own 
sectional  interest  and  its  own  sectional  power,  attempts  the  vain 
task  of  persuading  the  country  that  a  man  like  Mr.  Fillmore,  re 
splendent  with  the  glories  of  a  great  administration,  which  ap 
peals  to  those  pervading  and  national  considerations  which  wake 
responses  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  must  be  left  in  the  insig 
nificant  minority  of  a  few  rational  men  of  the  North  and  the 
South. 

Mr.  Chairman,  long  lists  of  names  have  been  paraded  of  new 
converts  to  Mr.  Buchanan.  Letters  have  been  spread  before  the 
public,  urging  arguments  with  all  the  authority  of  names  entitled 
to  the  profound  respect  of  the  House  and  the  country.  I  know 
in  these  lists,  whether  they  relate  to  Maryland  or  elsewhere,  of 
no  man  who,  at  the  fall  election,  earnestly  supported  the  Ameri 
can  cause.  I  see,  in  most  of  them,  neophytes  of  Democracy,  those 
hardened  sinners  against  its  benign  rule  who  were  baptized  last 
fall,  whose  tender  faith  has  been  duly  instructed  by  the  sponsors 
at  their  baptism,  and  whose  public  and  formal  declaration  now  is 
nothing  but  the  ceremony  of  confirmation  to  the  world  of  their 
earlier  conversion.  There  is  nothing  in  that  list  which  need 
shake  the  confidence  of  the  American  party.  There  is  nothing 
which  makes  the  scale  of  Mr.  Fillmore  vacillate  for  a  single  in 
stant  in  its  inclination  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  There  is  noth 
ing  that  in  the  slightest  degree  increases  the  difficulty  of  repeat 
ing,  with  larger  majorities  and  greater  eclat,  the  triumph  of  the 
past  year.  But,  sir,  I  rise  to  test  the  argument  thus  supported  by 
great  names  and  widespread  authority.  "We  are  not  to  vote  for 
Fillmore  because  a  majority  at  the  North  are  opposed  to  his  wise 
and  patriotic  administration  —  so  runs  the  reason;  because  the 


44  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

majority  of  the  North  are  not  favorable  to  compromise  and  con 
ciliation — so  runs  the  reason ;  because  the  majority  of  the  North 
regard  the  time  as  come  when  they  must  get  a  scourge  for  the 
South ;  because  the  majority  of  the  North  are  of  that  opinion, 
therefore,  in  this  contest,  which  they  superciliously  assume  is  to 
be  between  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  candidates,  all  men 
must  desert  the  candidate  who  is  alone  the  candidate  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  Union.  The  argument  is  hollow  and  insidious. 
If  the  majority  of  the  North  be  such,  then  the  time  for  voting  is  past. 
It  is  no  longer  a  question  whether  we  will  vote  for  Fillm'ore  or 
Buchanan  as  President  of  the  United  States,  because  the  South  is 
in  a  pitiable  minority  in  the  electoral  college,  and  every  vote  cast 
there  leaves  her  where  she  is,  and  without  the  power  of  self-pro 
tection.  If  the  hour  of  madness  be  come ;  if  reason  be  dead  in 
her  chosen  seat ;  if  the  conservative  North  has  ceased  to  be  con 
servative,  and  is  inspired  by  the  hatred  this  argument  ascribes  to 
her  people,  then  we  have  no  election  on  the  4th  of  November  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Buchanan  will  be  ineligible 
as  a  foreigner  to  rule  the  South.  We  have  passed  by  the  time  of 
the  election  of  that  man  whose  name  is  to  close  the  fasti  of  that 
illustrious  line. 

The  people  of  1852  divined  well  that  they  were  choosing  the 
Honorius  of  the  republic,  and  fitted  the  man  to  the  station.  The 
argument  proves  too  much,  if  it  is  true.  If  it  is  not  true,  it  is 
trash. 

But  the  argument  is  put  into  a  different  shape,  and  pointed  di 
rectly  at  Mr.  Fillmore.  His  merits  are  made  his  incapacities. 
His  truth  to  the  Union  is  made  the  reason  why  Southern  gentle 
men,  for  whom  he  ran  the  greatest  risk  against  the  opinion  of  his 
own  region  of  country,  are  to  turn  against  him — desert  him,  for  a 
man  who  has  encountered  nothing  for  them  or  for  the  Union. 
The  majority  of  the  North  are  opposed  to  Mr.  Fillmore  because 
of  his  wise  and  patriotic  administration.  They  will  then  vote  for 
Buchanan  because  his  administration  will  not  be  so  wise  and  pa 
triotic.  They  are  opposed  to  Fillmore  because  they  are  opposed 
to  conciliation  and  compromise.  They  will  vote  for  Mr.  Bu 
chanan  because  he  and  his  party  have  said,  "  No  more  compro 
mise,  and  no  more  conciliation."  They  will  not  vote  for  Fill- 
more  because  they  want  a  scourge  for  the  South.  Unwittingly 
the  argument  pictures  the  result  of  that  policy  which  our  Demo- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  45 

cratic  friends  have  inaugurated  and  followed  out  to  its  bitter  end. 
The  majority  of  the  Northern  allies  of  the  Democrats  are  sup 
posed  very  likely  to  vote  for  Buchanan  because  he  will  be  a  scourge 
to  the  South.  If  that  be  not  the  argument,  then  the  argument  is 
unmeaning. 

Well,  if  that  be  the  foundation  of  the  argument,  will  not  gen 
tlemen  who  appreciate  the  force  of  reasoning  cease  to  use  it? 
Will  they  not  give  some  better  reason  why  Mr.  Fillmore  can  get 
no  strength  at  the  North  ? 

Will  they  not  say,  "Come,  let  us  reason  together;"  and  say 
that  Mr.  Buchanan  better  respects  the  great  fundamental  princi 
ple  of  the  Constitution,  and  not  base  their  argument  on  the  revo 
lutionary  assumption  that  the  majority  of  the  men  of  the  free 
states  are  run  mad  against  the  men  of  the  South  ?  It  is  very 
tempting,  I  know,  to  Southern  Democrats.  If  the  majority  of  the 
North  are  madly  bent  on  punishing  the  South,  they  will  pass 
Mr.  Fillmore  by,  and  inflict  on  it  Mr.  Buchanan  as  the  more  cruel 
scourge.  The  argument  is  good,  sir ;  the  fact  on  which  it  rests  is 
not  true. 

Far  different  is  my  estimate  of  my  Northern  brethren.  I  am 
not  aware  of  any  acts  of  the  North,  as  they  appear  upon  our 
statute-books,  or  as  executed  from  the  executive  chamber,  how 
ever  wild  may  have  been  the  votes  occasionally  of  a  majority 
upon  this  floor,  or  however  dangerous  the  arguments  pressed  into 
their  support,  which  in  the  slightest  degree  has  sullied  the  honor 
or  injured  the  interest  of  the  South.  They  have  differed  upon 
industrial  questions,  and  decided  them  by  party  tactics;  they  have 
been  set  one  against  the  other  in  party  manoeuvre,  party  triumph 
and  domination ;  but  I  say  that,  during  the  eighty  years  of  the  re 
public,  there  is  no  portion  of  this  great  land  which  has  reason  to 
cast  into  the  teeth  of  either  the  North  or  the  South  that  any  great 
right  of  either  section  has  been  trampled  down — any  great  right 
of  the  Constitution  deliberately  violated — any  fact  showing  that 
madness  rules  the  majority  either  at  the  North  or  at  the  South. 

But  there  is  a  solemn  fact  which  my  Democratic  friends  ad 
mit.  There  is  hostility  at  the  North.  They  adroitly  point  it  at 
the  South.  They  vainly  strive  to  place  the  /South  bettueen  themselves 
and  the  shaft  that  has  already  smitten  them  to  the  earth.  There  is 
wrath  boiling  up  at  the  North,  but  it  is  a  wrath  which  boils 
against  them.  There  is  a  hostility  at  the  North,  but  it  is  a  hos- 


46  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

tility  which  they  have  aroused,  which  has  stricken  them  down,  and 
will  keep  them.  down. 

I  wish  to  feel  the  pulse  of  the  North  to-night ;  I  wish  to  see 
whether  there  be  reason  or  madness  throbbing  there  ;  whether  it 
be  the  rational  wrath  of  men  who  believe  they  have  been  out 
raged  in  their  dearest  rights,  or  whether  it  be  the  madness  of 
men  who  have  flashed  into  fury  causelessly. 

Sir,  there  are  a  series  of  great  facts  which  strike  us  wheresoever 
we  turn  our  eyes.  In  1853,  the  present  incumbent  of  the  presi 
dential  chair  was  elevated  on  the  shields  of  twenty-seven  states, 
and  borne  to  the  White  House  amid  the  acclamations  of  an  ex 
ultant  people,  rejoicing  in  the  advent  of  an  era  of  peace.  Three 
suns  have  run  their  course,  and  now  "  he  is  at  supper;  not  where 
he  eats,  but  where  he  is  eaten ;  for  a  certain  body  of  politic  worms 
are  e'en  at  him."  When  he  ascended  the  chair  of  state,  a  great 
majority  of  seventy  in  this  House  obsequiously  awaited  his  will. 
The  sun  had  not  thrice  run  his  course  ere  that  majority  had  shriv 
eled  to  seventy-four  men.  Their  place  knows  them  no  more. 
This  side  of  the  House  is  a  charnel-house  of  dead  Democrats. 
The  few  survivors  tread  mournfully  as  they  pass  it — as  a  Roman 
might  walk  over  Cannae.  "  The  bloody  ghost  of  the  murdered 
Wright"  still  to  the  eye  of  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  (Mr. 
Cobb)  disputes  the  stool  with  his  successor  of  flesh  and  blood 
(Mr.  Fuller) ;  and  many  other  spectres  have  left  untimely  graves 
to  warn  the  pale  survivors  of  their  fate. 

My  honorable  friend  from  South  Carolina  was  early  at  the  sep 
ulchres  of  the  righteous  in  New  Hampshire,  vainly  seeking  signs 
of  the  day  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  but  the  snow  still  lay 
on  the  marble.  The  crocus  of  the  early  spring  had  not  pushed 
itself  through  the  frozen  soil,  and  he  returned  chanting  sadly, 

"  A  cold,  deceitful  thing  is  the  snow, 
Though  it  come  on  dove-like  wing. 

The  false  snow, 

'Tis  but  rain  disguised  appears, 
And  our  hopes  are  frozen  tears — 

Like  the  snow." 

Indeed,  sir,  the  resurrection  of  the  Democratic  party  at  the  North 
is  an  event  not  at  all  anticipated  there.     It  has  sunk  from  view, 
like  water  spilled  upon  the  ground,  not  to  be  gathered  again. 
A  stubborn  resolution  has  been  manifested  at  the  North.    Since 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  47 

that  great  day  there  has  been  nothing  which  shows  that  my  hon 
orable  friends  on  the  Democratic  side  of  the  house  have  a  majori 
ty  in  one  single  state  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  There  is 
not  one  single  fact  that  shows  that  they  can  carry  a  state  north 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  on  national  politics  even  on  a  plurality. 
The  account  of  loss  and  gain  stands  as  a  set-off.  If,  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  Democrats,  and  Whigs,  and  Americans  have  combined  to 
elect  a  canal  commissioner  by  a  plurality  only,  in  Maine  Demo 
crats  and  liquor-men  have  united,  and  carried  a  local  election  by 
a  plurality.  In  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut  the  Americans 
have  carried  the  local  elections  by  pluralities.  If  New  Jersey  has 
given  a  Democratic  majority  in  a  local  election,  California  has 
come  to  the  Americans  by  a  large  majority. 

The  faithful  fondly  hoped  that  some  of  these  elections  indi 
cated  a  change  of  tide.  They  forgot  that  Falstaff  "parted  just 
between  twelve  and  one,  e'en  at  turning  of  the  tide."  If  there  be 
any  compunctions  of  conscience  forcing  them  to  cry  out,  "  God ! 
God  I  God !"  let  them  beware  of  those  Dame  Quickly s  who,  to 
comfort  them,  bid  them  not  think  of  God,  and  hope  there  is  no 
need  to  trouble  themselves  with  such  thoughts  yet ;  for  when  the 
parting  Falstaff  so  cried  and  was  so  comforted,  and  had  more 
clothes  laid  on  his  feet,  the  comforter,  Dame  Quickly,  knew  there 
was  but  one  way ;  and  when  she  had  put  her  hand  into  the  bed 
and  felt  his  feet,  they  were  cold  as  any  stone ;  and  then  she  felt 
to  his  knees,  and  so  upward  and  upward,  and  all  was  cold  as  any 
stone. 

Sir,  the  fatal  hour  has  come.  Even  while  I  speak  the  stricken 
field  of  Iowa  brings  to  them  defeat  and  disaster,  crushed  hopes 
and  cruel  disappointment.  Their  feet  are  already  cold  in  the 
North,  and  we  feel  upward,  and  upward,  and  upward  toward  their 
head  in  the  South — all  is  cold  as  any  stone.  'Tis  vain  to  ask  for 
more  clothes  on  the  feet,  for  their  passing  bell  is  already  tolling 
that  men  may  pray  for  the  parting  soul.  But,  sir,  they  are  not 
without  consolation.  There  are  true  Bardolphs,  who,  when  told 
of  their  death,  will  exclaim,  "  Would  I  were  with  them,  whereso 
ever  they  be — either  in  heaven  or  in  hell."  Now,  sir,  why  is  all 
this?  We  need  no  election  statistics  for  the  response.  They 
were  the  triumphant  and  dominant  party  at  the  North  ere  this 
great  flood.  None  so  sound,  none  so  unshaken,  none  so  true  to 
defend  the  South  through  thick  and  thin,  at  all  hazards  and  to  the 


48  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

last  extremity,  as  the  Democrats  of  the  North.  Where  are  they 
gone  ?  "  Are  they  asleep,  or  on  a  journey,  or  at  a  feast  ?"  or  have 
they  forgotten  their  duty,  or  have  they  become  mad?  or  have 
they  played  like  children,  casting  one  vote  for  my  honorable 
friend  and  another  for  their  honorable  opponents? 

Sir,  the  American  people  have  been  bred  in  American  habits. 
They  are  not  in  the  habit  of  capricious  and  causeless  change.  I 
mean  to  speak  the  cause  of  that  change  out  loud.  It  is  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  enactment  of  the  Kansas- Nebraska 
Act,  and  the  outrages  in  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  denied  or  defended 
by  my  honorable  Democratic  friends.  They  were  here  warned 
by  the  honorable  senator  from  Illinois,  who  reported  that  meas 
ure,  in  his  first  report  against  it,  of  the  -dangerous  consequences, 
and  they  would  not  heed  the  warning.  In  an  evil  day  for  his 
reputation,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  overcome  by  party  and  per 
sonal  ambition,  and  to  be  deluded  by  the  hopes  of  party  domina 
tion.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  deluded  by  the  supposition  that 
he  could  bring  to  the  support  of  that  measure  the  great  body  of 
Southern  men,  Whigs  and  Democrats,  and  that  the  temporary  ex 
citement  would  only  raise  the  froth  upon  the  surface,  while  the 
depths  of  the  ocean  would  roll  on  in  their  sluggish  sleep.  Sir,  he 
cast  a  javelin  into  the  cave  of  ^Eolus,  and  all  the  winds  of  strife 
have  rushed  forth  across  the  ocean  and  cast  up  a  tempest  which 
leaves  of  the  Democratic  party  nothing  but  scattered  and  broken' 
fragments,  cast  on  the  shores  for  the  wreckers  to  collect,  and,  as 
they  measure  the  dimensions  of  mast  and  spar,  to  wonder  what 
great  admiral  it  was  that  has  gone  down  in  that  terrific  sea.  Sir, 
is  not  that  the  reason  ?  I  do  not  ask  gentlemen  to  tell  me  whether 
it  is  an  adequate  reason.  I  do  not  ask  gentlemen  to  say  if  the 
North  is  reasonable  in  its-  anger.  I  simply  ask  gentlemen,  upon 
their  candor  and  honor,  if  that  is  not  the  reason  of  the  existing  con 
dition  of  things  ?  There  is  no  gentleman  here  whose  heart  does 
not  echo  that  it  is;  and  I  venture  little  when  I  say  there  is 
scarcely  one  of  my  Democratic  friends  who  can  appreciate  the 
position  in  which  it  has  placed  them,  who  does  not  from  the  bot 
tom  of  his  heart  curse  the  day  on  which  he  was  so  misled.  If 
they  adhere  still  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  it  is  from  necessity, 
and  not  from  choice.  My  honorable  friends,  finding  themselves 
at  the  bottom  of  the  water,  have,  like  Cooper's  sailor  in  the  West 
ern  lake,  seized  a  root  to  keep  themselves  there.  It  is  from  ne- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  49 

cessity,  and  not  from  choice,  that,  with  a  millstone  around  their 
necks,  they  march  down  to  the  water  for  a  swimming-match  with 
light  men  having  floats  on. 

Why,  sir,  what  are  their  apologies — their  apologies  to  the  North, 
their  apologies  to  their  Democratic  friends,  whom  they  have  slain, 
murdered,  and  sent  to  the  land  of  ghosts,  for  whose  absence  my 
friend  from  Georgia  weeps  ?  The  Missouri  Compromise,  say  they, 
was  unconstitutional.  "  But  since  when  ?"  say  the  North  to  them. 
That  does  not  rest  well,  gentlemen,  in  your  mouths,  for  it  was  a 
Democratic  majority  that  passed  it.  It  was  the  great  men  of  the 
Democratic  party,  and,  more  than  all  others,  the  great  Mary  lander, 
William  Pinckney,  who  proposed,  and  advocated,  and  carried  that 
great  measure  of  healing  in  that  day.  The  great  argument  which 
he  addressed  to  vindicate  the  sovereignty  of  a  state  from  the  binding 
control  of  conditions  imposed  by  Congress,  is  the  argument,  mis 
understood,  broken  into  small  fragments  suitable  to  the  strength 
and  stature  of  those  who  use  them,  and  misapplied  now  by  gen 
tlemen  to  disprove  the  power  of  Congress  to  pass  the  very  Mis 
souri  restriction  on  a  Territory,  which  he  all  along  advocated  at 
the  very  time  of  that  great  argument,  and  incorporated  into  the 
very  act  which  is  his  triumphal  monument  to  the  peace  which  he 
conquered  and  perpetuated  by  it ;  and  Mr.  Monroe,  their  President, 
signed  it — signed  it,  not  hastily,  but  after  consulting  his  cabinet, 
in  which  was  Mr.  Calhoun,  on  the  precise  question  of  constitu 
tionality.  Is  that  long  ago?  Has  wisdom  arisen  in  a  later  gen 
eration  ?  Have  new  lights  been  discovered  in  the  Constitution  ? 
Have  judicial  decisions  cleared  away  the  difficulty? 

It  was  in  1845  when  the  great  Democratic  measure  teas  passed 
by  which  Texas  was  annexed  to  this  Union ;  and  my  honorable 
friends,  or  their  predecessors,  then  in  a  majority  in  both  branches 
of  Congress,  passed  the  Texas  resolution,  which  enacted  the  very 
thing  against  which  Pinckney  directed  the  argument  which  they 
now  make  the  arsenal  for  weapons  to  assail  what  he  advocated. 
They  cast  their  votes  for  it,  and  President  Tyler  on  the  3d  of 
March  signed  it.  "  Oh,  but  Tyler  was  not  a  Democrat."  Yes, 
but  he  was,  by  conversion,  or  perversion,  or  treachery,  or  deser 
tion  ;  he  was  by  acceptance  and  adoption  ;  he  was  by  his  cabinet 
and  his  administration ;  he  was  doubly  so  by  the  presence  and 
counsel  of  Calhoun,  the  incarnation  of  the  very  idea  of  Southern 
strict  construction ;  and  it  is  understood  that  the  resolutions  came 

D 


50  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

down  from  the  secretary  of  state,  who  was  Mr.  Calhoun  —  that  it 
was  his  influence  which  dispatched  the  resolutions  to  Texas  for 
acceptance  on  the  last  day  of  President  Tyler's  term ;  and  Mr. 
Polk,  though  on  the  spot,  did  not  recall  them. 

That  resolution  declares  that  all  the  territory  south  of  36° 
30',  whenever  Texas  should  be  divided,  should  come  into  the 
Union,  with  or  without  slavery,  as  the  states  may  determine,  and 
that  in  such  state  or  states  (I  ask  gentlemen  to  bear  the  word  state 
in  mind) — in  those  states  which  shall  be  formed  out  of  the  Texan 
territory  as  lies  north  of  36°  30' — in  those  states  (I  wish  the  word 
to  burn  itself  into  their  seared  consciences ;  it  is  the  thing  which 
was  in  issue  in  the  Missouri  struggle ;  it  was  the  only  thing  which 
was  there  disputed ;  it  is  the  thing  which  was  decided  in  the  Mis 
souri  controversy  in  favor  of  the  South  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
limitation  on  the  sovereign  equality  of  the  states) — in  those  states 
which  shall  be  formed  of  the  territory  north  of  that  line,  slavery 
and  involuntary  servitude  shall  be  prohibited  ;  and  James  Buchanan 
was  one  of  the  Democratic  majority  who  advocated  and  passed  it. 

Time  rolled  on,  and  another  Territory  was  to  be  organized. 
Again,  with  that  remarkable  luck  which  has  followed  them — 
which  has  misled  them  to  their  deep  undoing — they  had  the  ma 
jority  in  this  hall ;  they  had  a  majority  in  both  branches  of  the 
councils  of  the  nation  when  the  Territory  of  Oregon  was  to  be  or 
ganized  ;  and  again  that  majority  adopted  that  restriction — word 
for  word — the  ordinance  of  1787.  Again  a  Democratic  Presi 
dent,  Mr.  Polk,  signed  it,  and  not  merely  so  signed,  but  with  a 
farther  declaration,  not  that  he  expected  this  to  be  the  last  of  it— 
not  merely  that  slavery  was  there  impossible  or  improbable,  but 
on  the  expectation  that  it  would  be  again  passed  ly  that  or  another 
Congress,  adopted,  and  incorporated  into  the  acts  for  the  settlement  of 
the  Mexican  conquests  ! 

I  neither  affirm  the  correctness  or  the  incorrectness  of  this  view. 
I  simply  urge  the/ac£  which  Northern  Democrats  pleaded  against 
the  Southern  Democrats. 

But,  said  my  honorable  friends  upon  the  Democratic  side  of  this 
hall  to  their  friends  from  the  North— for  there  is  where  the  defec 
tion  arose ;  there  is  where  the  strength  of  the  Kepublican  party 
comes  from — out  of  their  own  side  came  that  portentous  creation 
whence  comes  this  sin  and  all  our  woe  into  our  happy  world. 
"We  say  that  we  have  reversed  all  that,  and  those  laws  and  com- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  51 

» 

promises  are  void  by  reason  of  being  inconsistent  with  the  compro 
mise  measures  of  1850.  Those  measures  have  repealed  it."  "Ah ! 
but,"  said  their  Northern  Democratic  friends,  continuing  their  re 
monstrance,  "  the  law  which  organized  the  boundary  of  Texas 
declared  in  so  many  words  that  nothing  therein  contained  should 
be  construed  to  repeal  or  modify  any  thing  contained  in  that  very 
clause  of  the  Texas  resolutions." 

These  Northern  Democrats  still  farther  mercilessly  press  their 
Democratic  brethren,  as  if  to  leave  my  honorable  friends  on  my 
left  no  escape  from  the  most  awkward  of  dilemmas.  If  it  be  true 
that  the  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  was  settled  by  the  com 
promise  measures  of  1850,  how  came  it  to  be  omitted  in  the  legis 
lation  of  1853,  since  the  acts  of  1850  were  enacted  ?  The  Con 
gress  of  1853,  with  a  great  Democratic  majoritjr,  organized  the 
Territory  of  Washington  out  of  a  territory  over  which  the  or 
dinance  of  1787  had  been  ly  them  in  1848  extended ;  and  that 
Congress,  in  the  year  of  grace  1853,  an$  of  the  era  of  the  new  dis 
pensation  of  the  3d,  not  merely  failed  to  remove  that  restriction, 
but  declared  that  the  laws  of  Oregon  should  be  enforced  in  the 
Territory  of  Washington,  which  laws  included  slavery  ly  special 
enactment,  in  flagrant  conflict  with  the  principles  which  they  now 
declare  to  have  been  the  very  vital  principle  embodied  in  and 
pervading  the  acts  of  1850.  You  know  as  well  as  we  do  that 
these  compromise  measures  of  1850  have  always  been  regarded 
and  treated  as  a  finality — the  end  of  controversy ;  that  this  last 
compromise,  this  great  compromise  of  1850,  was  settled  on  the 
basis  of  all  the  preceding  compromises. 

On  the  assumption  and  the  concession,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Web 
ster,  that  every  foot  of  territory  in  the  United  States  was  finally 
settled  by  laws  irrepealable,  and  that  it  was  only  on  that  suppo 
sition  that  the  laws  of  1850  became  laws  at  all,  only  last  session 
you  passed  a  bill  creating  a  government  over  all  the  territorv 
now  embraced  in  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Act,  without  opposi 
tion,  merely  by  common  consent ;  and  no  man  of  any  party  dis 
covered,  or,  if  he  had  discovered,  revealed,  still  less  attempted  to 
declare  the  novel  dogma  of  a  latent  principle,  not  even  expressed 
in  an  act,  being  effectual  to  annul  another  law  enacted  on  another 
principle.  From  argument  they  passed  to  entreaty  and  pathetic 
appeal.  These  thirty  years  we  have  lived  under  this  law ;  it  has 
injured  no  man.  No  Southern  state  protested  against  its  enact- 


52  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

ment ;  none  in  1850  demanded  its  repeal ;  many  Southern  men 
pressed  its  extension  to  the  Pacific ;  no  Southern  state  now  de 
mands  it ;  no  tempest  agitates  the  popular  mind  which  its  repeal 
can  quiet ;  no  great  national  necessity  compels  the  statesman,  in 
the  high  election  between  evils,  to  tread  this  untrod  path.  You 
say  your  object  is  not  a  new  slave  state ;  then  let  it  be  as  it  is. 
You  say  the  Northern  tide  of  emigration  will  insure  its  freedom. 
Then  why  do  the  nugatory  act  of  repealing  a  law  which  changes 
no  result  ?  Why  disturb  the  peace  of  the  country  by  this  wound 
inflicted  on  the  prejudices  of  your  Northern  brethren?  Deliver 
us  not  over  into  the  hands  of  the  Abolitionists.  They  are  ever 
watchful  to  rebel  against  the  overthrow  of  1850.  We  stood  by 
you  then ;  will  you  BETRAY  us  NOW  ? 

Well,  sir,  this  bill  passed,  I  come  to  the  deplorable  sequel :  it 
was  an  invitation  for  all  the  elements  of  strife  to  concentrate  in 
Kansas.  The  executive,  representing  the  combined  factions  of 
both  North  and  South,  ought  to  have  been  doubly  careful  to  have 
taken'  some  man  from  the  North  or  South  who  was  far  above 
suspicion,  strong  to  resist  solicitations,  strong  to  repel  menaces, 
magnanimously  above  private,  personal,  and  pecuniary  considera 
tions.  He  could  have  taken  such  a  man  as  my  friend  from  Ore 
gon  (Mr.  Lane),  now  in  my  eye.  They  should  have  taken  a  man 
with  nerve  enough  not  to  be  frightened  by  threats  or  menaces, 
and  honest  enough  not  to  be  moved  by  promises.  They  should 
have  taken  a  man  who  knew  of  border  life,  with  military  experi 
ence  enough  to  set  a  battalion  in  the  field — whose  head  would  not 
be  dizzy  at  the  flash  of  steel — who  would  have  said  to  all  invaders 
— emissaries  of  aid  societies  or  marauders  from  the  Missouri  bor 
der — "Pass  not  hither;"  who  would  have  seen  that  the  great 
tourney  between  the  champions  of  freedom  and  of  slavery  was 
fairly  fought,  with  equal  wind  and  sun,  and  a  truncheon  swayed 
by  no  partiality.  There  are  men  within  the  sound  of  my  voice, 
of  that  party,  who  would  have  cut  off  their  right  hand  rather  than 
allow  the  violent  overthrow  of  a  law  they  were  ordered  to  exe 
cute — whose  cheek  would  burn  with  shame  at  the  unchecked  in 
solence  with  which  Governor  Keeder's  authority  was  derided  or 
eluded ;  men  who  would  have  bitten  out  their  tongues  ere  they 
made  the  confessions  poured  by  Governor  Keeder  into  the  Presi 
dent's  ear,  or,  hearing  them,  would  have  held  a  parley  with  the 
confessor,  proposed  honorable  banishment  on  a  foreign  mission  to 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  53 

coax  a  faithful  but  obnoxious  instrument  out  of  the  way,  to  avoid 
the  scandal  of  a  public  dismissal,  and  the  greater  scandal  of  a  con 
fession  of  blunders  worse  than  crimes,  and  weakness  worse  than 
wickedness. 

If  there  were  no  such  men  within  the  party,  it  is  unfit  to  guide 
the  destinies  of  the  country ;  and  if  there  were,  then  are  they 
thrice  unworthy  to  hold  a  power  they  have  so  grossly  abused. 
Sir,  that  scene  in  the  executive  mansion — the  proconsul  of  the 
President  narrating  that  he  let  the  life-blood  of  the  province  he 
ruled  run  unavenged  and  unstanched,  the  very  flowers  of  her 
franchises  be  trampled  down  at  the  sacred  ballot-box,  marauders 
from  either  pole  run  a  muck  over  her  peaceful  population,  him 
self  buried  to  the  eyes  and  ears  in  private  speculations  in  public 
lands  over  which  he  ruled  of  questionable  legality  and  of  unques 
tionable  evil  example,  and  deaf  to  the  cry  of  helpless  agony  that 
rang  through  his  domain,  content  to  leave  his  people  to  their  en 
emies,  if  the  protector  and  the  President  could  agree  on  the  color 
to  be  put  on  the  scandal  and  adjust  the  division  of  the  responsi 
bility,  confessing  these  things  to  the  President  of  the  republic, 
and  that  President  driving  a  bargain  for  a  foreign  mission  instead 
of  instant  and  ignominious  expulsion  from  office,  and  the  negotia 
tion  failing,  dismissing  him  gently  for  illegal  speculation,  silent  as 
the  tomb  to  the  civil  war  that  he  allowed  to  rage,  the  outraged 
law  he  failed  to  avenge,  the  rights  of  suffrage  violated  with  im 
punity,  and  the  yoke  of  a  legislation  born  in  violence  and  fraud 
by  his  judgment  fastened  on  the  necks  of  American  freemen — 
these  things,  established  by  a  vast  mass  of  resistless  testimony, 
form  a  new  and  melancholy  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  republic. 

Sir,  the  party  whose  policy,  however  well  intended,  has  given 
occasion  to  stain  the  American  name  with  civil  blood  by  the  re 
peal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  is  not  likely  to  stand  well  with 
the  men  of  the  North,  whose  brethren  have  been  the  sufferers. 
Their  denial  of  the  outrages,  their  extenuations,  their  apologies, 
day  after  day,  in  this  House,  till  the  stupendous  mass  of  the  com 
mittee's  evidence  overwhelmed  them,  and  their  cavils  at  the  evi 
dence — to  my  judgment  unimpeached,  and,  if  so,  of  crushing 
weight — scarcely  tends  to  improve  the  odor  of  the  Democratic 
party  in  the  Northern  nostrils.  That  is  my  opinion  of  the  result 
of  the  Kansas  investigation  :  I  dare  not  impute  perjury  to  men  by 
the  hundred ;  the  concurrence  of  so  many  is  itself  conclusive 


54  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

against  the  hypothesis  of  fabrication ;  and  I  must  be  pardoned  if 
my  legal  habits  will  not  allow  me  to  weigh  partisan  denials 
against  testimony  sworn  in  the  face  of  cross-examination.  I 
make  no  plea  for  some  strained  or  one-sided  inferences  which 
my  friend  from  Ohio  has  drawn  from  that  evidence.  I  tender  no 
apology  for  the  one-sided  results  drawn  by  my  friend  from  Mis 
souri.  I  am  here,  sir,  for  no  party.  I  am  speaking  this  day  for 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union;  I  am  pleading  for  the  great 
rights  of  American  citizens ;  I  am  pleading  for  the  honor  and  in 
tegrity  of  the  American  government  and  the  American  name.  I 
will  set  down  no  word  in  malice  that  would  tinge  the  honor  of 
the  country,  or  hide  one  dark  trait  which  the  people  of  the  coun 
try  ought  to  know.  The  reason  that  the  North  is  opposed  to  the 
Democratic  party  is  that  they  have  done  these  tilings. 

Now,  sir,  perhaps  we  begin  to  see  why  the  Northern  people 
will  not  support  Mr.  Buchanan.  "Why  will  they  not  support 
him  ?  Why  will  not  the  Conservative  vote  be  given  for  him  ?— 
for  there  is  a  Conservative  majority.  They  will  not  vote  for  the 
Democratic  party,  or  for  the  Democratic  nominee,  because  they 
have  been  guilty  of  these  things.  They  will  not  vote  for  them 
because  they  have  never  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  They 
will  not  vote  for  them  because  they  have  denied  the  wrongs  be 
fore  the  proof,  and  defended  them  after  the  proof.  They  will  not 
vote  for  them  because  they  have  reiterated  the  insult.  They  will 
not  vote  for  them  because  they  have  blazoned  on  their  banner  the 
very  words  of  the  ambiguous  oracle  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act, 
the  very  cause  and  declaration  of  war,  now  no  longer  deluding 
any  one,  but  plainly,  and  in  bloody  letters,  interpreted  on  the 
fields  of  Kansas. 

These  are  reasons  they  think  sufficient,  and  they  are  likely  to 
continue  to  think  them  sufficient.  If  Mr.  Fillmore  were  in  that 
position  they  would  not  vote  for  him.  Ay,  sir,  even  a  conserva 
tive  Northern  man,  tempted  by  a  spirit  of  revenge  and  retaliation, 
would  have  to  argue  with  himself  a  long  time  before  he  could 
bring  himself  down  to  vote  for  this  man,  who  has  outraged  all 
the  feelings  with  which  these  men  have  been  brought  up.  The 
best  and  most  conservative  of  them — thousands  of  degrees  from 
abolitionism  —  men  who  are  supporting  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union — men  who  are  willing  to  support  and  defend  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery — men  like  those  of  Boston,  who  execute  the  Fugi- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  55 

tive  Slave  Law,  marched  down  the  streets  of  that  city  with  loaded 
arms  to  shoot  down  their  own  citizens,  that  you,  men  of  the  South, 
might  be  protected — these  are  the  men  you  have  driven  from  you. 
Where  will  they  go  if  Mr.  Fillmore  were  not  offered  to  them  as 
the  symbol  of  peace  ? 

Sir,  I  put  it  to  my  honorable  friends  to  apply  to  them  the  ar 
guments  they  hold  valid  at  the  South.  The  Northern  men  are 
of  like  passions  with  us,  moved  by  insult,  not  above  revenge,  and 
not  given  to  prefer,  in  a  sectional  contest,  the  candidate  of  their 
opponents.  My  Democratic  friends  from  every  hustings  in  the 
South  exhort  the  people  to  vote  for  Mr.  Buchanan  because  lie  is 
the  Southern  candidate — because  he  is  for  the  Kansas- Nebraska  Act 
— because  he  is  against  compromise  in  a  Southern  sense — because 
he  is  the  strongest  man  opposed  to  the  Northern  sectional  candidate  ; 
and  by  this  sort  of  argument  they  admit  that  the  sectional  candi 
date  at  the  North  represents  the  same  class  of  men  at  the  North 
that  they  represent  at  the  South — men  who  are  no  more  unrea 
sonable  in  a  Northern  than  they  in  a  Southern  sense.  As  they 
appeal  to  the  South,  so  do  the  men  who  support  Mr.  Fremont 
appeal  to  the  North.  Gentlemen  of  the  Democratic  party,  judge 
ye  how  far  they  are  entitled  to  weight.  Are  they  conclusive? 
Do  they  compel  me  to  yield  my  political  preferences  ?  Is  it  right 
that  I  shall  go  for  Mr.  Buchanan  ?  Am  I  bound  to  bow  the  knee 
to  him?  Is  it  so  desperate  a  case  that  I  must  stomach  the  slurs 
and  imputations  which  were  hurled  on  me  and  the  American 
party  during  two  or  three  months  of  this  session?  Shall  I,  for 
these  considerations  of  a  merely  sectional  character,  because  he  is, 
as  you  say,  the  candidate  of  my  section,  abandon  those  who  stood 
by  us?  I  pray  you  to  recall  to  your  memories,  and  weigh  well 
the  obloquy  cast  on  the  American  party.  We  were,  you  say,  an 
unconstitutional  party — yea,  the  very  enemies  of  the  Constitution. 
We  were  opposed  to  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  we  were  for  de 
priving  men  of  equal  rights ;  we  were  for  driving  the  honest  for 
eigners  from  our  shores ;  we  were  midnight  assassins,  stained  with 
the  blood  and  dirt  of  riotous  mobs ;  we  had  taken  unconstitution 
al  oaths  not  to  obey  the  Constitution ;  we  could  not  be  touched 
in  the  speaker's  contest ;  no  compromise  could  be  made  with  us ; 
no  exchange  of  candidates  could  be  thought  of  for  a  moment. 
The  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Fuller),  who 
better  accords  with  their  notions  on  slavery,  in  theory  and  in 


56  A  PLEA  FOB  THE  COUNTRY 

practice,  than  the  honorable  member  from  Illinois,  so  long  their 
candidate,  could  not  be  touched.  The  very  meeting  in  Conven 
tion — the  very  meeting  in  caucus — ay,  sir,  the  very  meeting  for 
open  consultation,  was  scorned,  and  flung  back  in  our  faces.  They 
could  not  touch  such  political  lepers.  .  A  plurality  rule  was  an 
alternative  they  preferred,  knowing  the  consequences  of  the  vote 
would  be  to  place  the  present  speaker  in  the  chair. 

Such  was  their  conduct  to  us — so  conciliatory,  so  amiable,  so 
loving,  so  winning ;  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  rough  wooing,  they 
urge  us,  because  of  our  connection  with  the  South,  to  abandon  Mr. 
Fillmore,  the  choice  of  our  hearts,  for  Mr.  Buchanan,  because  Mr. 
Buchanan  is  the  safe  and  strong  man  for  the  South,  the  representa 
tive  of  Southern  interests.  So  intensely  did  they  hate  us — so  much 
more  did  they  hate  us  than  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts 
(the  speaker) ;  yet  so  paramount  do  they  regard  the  allegiance  to 
the  sectional  candidate  that  they  ask  us  to  sacrifice  our  personal 
preferences,  our  political  connections,  oar  outraged  dignity,  for 
their  triumph. 

Be  it  so.  Is  that  the  intensity  of  their  sectional  devotion  ?  I 
ask  them  to  apply  the  argument  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line, 
and  tell  me  who,  if  he  is  not  utterly  abandoned  and  degraded,  can, 
under  these  circumstances,  vote  for  that  candidate  who  holds  the 
position  their  candidate  holds  at  the  South,  and  toward  the  South. 
I  make  here  no  argument  of  my  own.  I  take  honorable  gentle 
men  upon  their  principles.  I  commend  to  their  lips  the  chalice 
they  mixed  and  poisoned  for  mine,  and  I  dare  them  to  the  task. 
I  know  that  my  friends,  in  rashness  and  in  hot  party  strife,  have 
done  many  things  to  endanger  the  Constitution.  I  do  not  believe 
they  wish  to  elect  Fremont ;  but,  sir,  if  they  had  been  bent  di 
rectly  on  that  purpose,  no  man  could  find  out  any  manner  which 
would  more  directly  and  more  inevitably  accomplish  that  result 
than  that  which  has  been  pursued. 

I  wish  to  free  it  from  all  collateral  issues,  and  put  this  one 
great  argument  before  the  country,  so  that  there  shall  be  an  end ; 
to  get  rid  of  Mr.  Fillmore  by  this  appeal  to  Southern  prejudices, 
I  wish  to  deal  with  that  and  nothing  else  to-night.  I  say,  sir,  if 
Mr.  Fillmore  be  not  supported  by  the  South,  the  whole  North, 
and  every  state  of  it,  must  and  will,  conservative  men  and  mad 
men,  vote  for  Mr.  Fremont,  by  the  very  same  reason  that  South 
ern  Democrats  urge  to  induce  Southern  gentlemen  to  abandon 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  57 

Mr.  Fillmore  for  Mr.  Buchanan.  There  needs  but  these  words  to 
accomplish  it:  "Fillmore  is  deserted  by  the  South  he  saved." 
That  one  line  would  be  a  quietus  undoubtedly  of  this  contest. 
Democrats  must  accept  that  result  of  their  own  reasoning.  They 
claim  every  Southerner  in  the  name  of  sectional  interest.  The 
Republicans  will  claim  every  Northern  man  in  the  name  of 
Northern  interests.  If  he  must  obey,  they  must  obey.  Is  the 
North,  will  the  Democrats  admit,  less  excitable,  less  hostile  than 
themselves?  If  not,  the  sectional  feeling  must  press  them  at 
least  equally.  Will  they  be  likely  to  listen  more  readily  to  rea 
sons  for  Mr.  Buchanan  than  Southern  men  to  reasons  for  Mr. 
Fremont?  Or  will  not  both  be  more  accessible  to  arguments  for 
Mr.  Fillmore  than  either  ?  Do  they  suppose  the  Northern  laborer 
to  be  less  interested  than  the  Southern  planter  in  the  question  of 
free  and  slave  labor?  or  is  he  more  cool  and  unprejudiced,  when 
his  livelihood  and  personal  dignity  are  involved,  than  the  South 
ern  planter,  whose  property  only  is  affected  ? 

The  argument,  therefore,  must  be  abandoned,  or  it  must  be  ad 
mitted  as  unquestionably  true  that  the  logical  result  is  to  drive 
the  whole  North,  not  into  the  arms  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  but  into  the 
arms  of  Mr.  Fremont. 

The  Democratic  party  at  the  North  has  melted  away  into  the 
Fremont  party.  They  form  its  strength.  They  have  done  so 
because  they  were  specially  grieved  by  the  use  made  of  their  rep 
resentatives  in  the  Kansas-Bill  conflict.  They  had  always  been 
what  in  other  people  the  Southern  Democrats  called  Free  Soil. 
That  shone  out  in  the  remarks  of  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Ohio  (Mr.  Leiter),  whose  series  of  resolutions  for  fifteen  years 
spoke  the  language — beginning  in  the  Democratic  Conventions 
and  ending  in  the  Eepublican  Conventions — with  a  unity  of  sen 
timent  and  language  defying  the  detection  of  the  point  where  the 
Democrat  shaded  off  into  the  Republican.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  this  blow  has  been  so  fatal  to  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
North — that  the  hatred  of  the  North  is  so  deadly  against  it,  and 
yet  is  confined  to  it,  and  yet  so  sagaciously  under  control,  so 
much  of  method  in  their  madness,  that  they  will  not  allow  a 
chance  to  Mr.  Buchanan  of  the  election  by  pluralities,  but  will 
defeat  that  by  any  combination. 

This  view  should  determine  the  South  to  disentangle  its  cause 
from  the  fragments  of  the  broken,  powerless,  and  obnoxious  Dem- 


58  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

ocrats.  The  Democratic  party  are  no  longer  fit  mediators  be 
tween  the  North  and  South.  How  can  they  exact  performance 
of  the  Texas  Compromise?  how  protest  against  a  repeal  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  ?  how  demand  that  the  Wilmot  Proviso  be 
not  extended  to  all  the  Territories?  how  claim  the  admission  of 
more  slave  states?  Their  mouth  is»sealed  on  these  topics  before 
the  revenge  of  the  Kepublicans.  By  the  law  of  retaliation,  these 
things  would  be  natural  and  just  punishments  to  that  party  which 
has  swept  away  the  compromises  and  denied  the  principles  on 
which  all  these  rights  rested.  The  Kepublican  closes  his  mouth 
with  the  reply,  "You  (the  Democratic  party)  have  no  right  to  ap 
peal  to  us." 

It  is  only  in  the  name  of  the  Southern  people — of  the  men  who 
do  not  join  in  the  outrage — that  these  dire  consequences  can  be 
surely  avoided.  The  repudiation  of  the  Democratic  party  is  the 
first  condition  and  best  security  for  peace  and  safety.  It  silences 
the  plea  of  revenge  and  retaliation.  The  people  of  the  South  owe 
it  to  themselves  and  to  their  future  as  completely  to  discard  the 
Democrats  as  the  people  of  the  North  have  withdrawn  from  them 
their  confidence. 

But  there  are  Democratic  gentlemen  who  anticipate  the  success 
of  the  argument  in  driving  every  body  to  support  Mr.  Fremont, 
and  who  speculate  on  the  consequences.  There  are  men  who  go 
about  the  country  declaiming  about  the  inevitable  consequences 
of  the  election  of  Mr.  Fremont,  and  the  question  is  asked  whether 
that  simple  fact  is  not  sufficient,  not  merely  to  justify,  but  to  re 
quire  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  The  question  has  been  asked 
of  me  to-day.  That  is  a  question  which  I  do  not  regard  as  even  a 
subject  of  discussion.  It  never  will  be  done  while  men  have  their 
reason.  It  never  will  be  done  until  some  party,  bent  upon  ac 
quiring  party  power,  shall  again,  and  again,  and  again  exasperate, 
beyond  the  reach  of  reason,  Northern  and  Southern  minds,  as  my 
Southern  friends  have  now  exasperated  the  Northern  minds.  It 
would  be  an  act  of  suicide,  and  sane  men  do  not  commit  suicide. 
The  act  itself  is  insanity.  It  will  be  done,  if  ever,  in  a  tempest  of 
fury  and  madness  which  can  not  stop  to  reason.  Dissolution 
means  death — the  suicide  of  Liberty  without  the  hope  of  resurrec 
tion — death  without  the  glories  of  immortality,  with  no  sister  to 
mourn  her  fate,  none  to  wrap  her  decently  in  her  winding-sheet 
and  bear  her  tenderly  to  her  sepulchre — dead  Liberty  left  to  the 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  59 

horrors  of  corruption,  a  loathsome  thing,  with  a  stake  through 
the  body,  which  men  shun,  cast  out  naked  on  the  highway  of 
nations,  where  the  tyrants  of  the  earth,  who  feared  her  living, 
will  mock  her  dead — passing  by  on  the  other  side,  wagging  their 
heads  and  thrusting  their  tongue  in  their  cheek  at  her,  saying, 
Behold  her !  how  she  that  was  fair  among  nations  is  fallen !  is 
fallen ! — and  only  the  few  wise  men  who  loved  her,  out  of  every 
nation,  will  shed  tears  over  her  body  to  quiet  her  manes,  while 
we,  her  children,  stumble  about  her  ruined  habitations,  to  find  dis 
honorable  graves  wherein  to  hide  our  shame. 

Dissolution !  How  shall  it  be  ?  Who  shall  make  it  ?  Do  men 
dream  of  Lot  and  Abraham  parting,  one  to  the  east,  one  to  the 
west,  peacefully,  because  their  servants  strive?  That  states  will 
divide  from  states,  and  boundary-lines  will  be  marked  by  com 
pass  and  chain  ?  Sir,  that  will  be  a  portentous  commission  that 
will  settle  that  partition,  for  cannon  will  be  planted  at  the  cor 
ners,  and  grinning  skeletons  be  finger-posts  to  point  the  way.  It 
will  be  no  line  gently  marked  on  the  bosom  of  the  republic — 
some  meandering  vein  whence  generations  of  her  children  have 
drawn  their  nourishment — but  a  sharp  and  jagged  chasm,  rending 
the  hearts  of  great  commonwealths,  lacerated  and  smeared  with 
fraternal  blood. 

On  the  night  when  the  stars  of  her  constellation  shall  fall  from 
heaven,  the  blackness  of  darkness  will  settle  on  the  liberties  of 
mankind  in  this  Western  world.  This  is  dissolution.  If  such,  sir, 
is  dissolution,  as  seen  in  a  glass  darkly,  how  terrible  will  it  be  face 
to  face  ?  They  who  reason  about  it  are  half  crazy  now ;  they 
who  talk  of  it  do  not  mean  it,  and  dare  not  mean  it. 

They  who  speak  in  earnest  of  a  dissolution  of  this  Union  seem 
to  me  like  children  or  madmen.  He  who  would  do  such  a  deed 
as  that  would  be  the  maniac,  without  a  tongue  to  tell  his  deed  or 
reason  to  arrest  his  steps ;  an  instrument  of  a  mad  impulse,  im 
pelled  by  one  idea — to  smite  his  victim.  Sir,  there  have  been 
maniacs  who  have  been  cured  by  horror  at  the  blood  they  have 
shed. 

Gentlemen  ask, "  If  Mr.  Fremont  be  elected,  how  will  Maryland 
go?  what  will  Maryland  do?"  I  do  not  allow  that  question  to 
be  asked.  She  knows  but  one  country  and  but  one  Union.  Her 
glory  is  in  it ;  her  rights  are  bound  up  in  it.  Her  children  shed 
their  blood  for  it,  and  they  will  do  it  again.  Beyond  it  she  knows 


60  A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY 

nothing.  She  does  not  reckon  whether  there  is  more  advantage 
in  the  Union  to  the  North  or  to  the  South ;  she  does  not  calcu 
late  its  value ;  nor  does  she  cast  up  an  account  of  profit  and  loss 
on  the  blood  of  her  children.  That  is  my  answer  to  that  ques 
tion.  But,  sir,  it  is  portentous  to  hear  the  members  of  a  party 
contesting  for  the  presidency  menace  dissolution  and  revolution 
as  the  penalty  they  will  inflict  on  the  victors  for  defeating  them. 
People  who  do  not  hold  the  Union  worth  four  years'  deprivation 
of  office  are  scarcely  safe  depositaries  of  its  powers. 

But  if  these  are  to  be  the  bloody  consequences  of  a  successful 
concentration  of  the  Northern  vote  for  Mr.  Fremont,  will  not  my 
Democratic  friends,  as  the  result  of  the  argument,  allow  the  mod 
erate  and  conservative  men  of  the  North  and  South  a  chance  to 
cling  to  those  around  who,  being  open  to  reason,  yet  doubt  how 
they  shall  vote,  and  reiterate  in  their  ears  reasons  why  they 
should  not  drive  this  dangerous  issue  to  a  decision  ?  They  sup 
pose  that  because,  in  the  wreck  of  parties,  they  must  go  to  the 
wall  or  to  the  bottom  unless  Mr.  Fillmore  can  be  gotten  rid  of, 
that  which  is  necessary  to  save  them  is  necessary  to  save  the 
Union.  "  We  are  the  state  ;"  what  is  good  for  us,  therefore,  is  good 
for  the  state,  is  their  reasoning,  and  the  Kansas  Act  and  civil  war 
is  the  conclusion.  Self-love,  party  devotion,  have  misled  them. 
Their  safety  and  their  success  involve  great  danger  to  the  repub 
lic,  and  in  their  rum  lies  the  safety  of  the  republic. 

Sir,  they  boast  at  the  South,  and  it  is  their  To  tnumplie,  that 
they  have  defeated  and  overthrown  abolition.  Is  it  from  this 
great  struggle,  then,  that  the  Democratic  ranks  are  weak,  and 
wan,  and  thin  ?  Why,  sir,  the  Abolition  party  fell  beneath  the 
blows  of  Millard  Fillmore,  leading  the  conservative  men  of  all 
parties — the  Clays,  the  Websters,  the  Footes,  the  Bentons  of  that 
great  era  of  1850,  and  was  laid  in  a  tomb  inscribed  with  those 
acts,  and  bearing  on  its  base  the  words  Millard  Fillmore  fecit. 
Their  leaders  covered  the  journals  of  the  Senate  with  their  pro 
tests  against  those  wise  but  obnoxious  concessions  which  laid  the 
evil  spirit.  But  when  the  monster  was  overthrown  and  the  field 
deserted,  they  dug  up  the  dead  body,  and  laid  it  at  the  feet  of  the 
South,  and  claimed  their  reward : 

"  Lo  our  trophy  !  lo  our  scalp  !  to  you  be  the  spoil  of  our  sword  and  spear." 

Why,  sir,  they  "  fought  a  long  hour  by  Shrewsbury  clock." 
When  Prince  Hal  made  Percy  food  for  worms,  Falstaff  counter- 


AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS.  61 

felted  death ;  and  when  the  fight  was  over  and  the  victor  gone, 
Falstaff,  thus  soliloquizing — 

"Zounds,  I  am  afraid  of  this  gunpowder  Percy,  though  he  be  dead.  Therefore 
I'll  make  him  sure ;  yea,  and  I'll  swear  I  killed  him.  Nothing  confutes  me  but 
eyes,  and  nobody  sees  me" — 

stabbed  the  dead  body  in  the  thigh,  shouldered  it,  and  cast  it  at 
the  feet  of  the  victor : 

"There  is  Percy;  if  your  father  will  do  me  any  honor,  so;  if  not,  let  him  kill 
the  next  Percy  himself.  /  look  to  be  either  earl  or  duke,  I  can  assure  you." 

The  prince  turned  away,  Falstaff  following : 

"I'll  follow,  as  they  say,  for  reward.     He  that  rewards  me,  God  reward  him  !" 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  but  a  few  words  more  to  say.  Whose 
cause  am  I  pleading  ?  I  speak  here  in  behalf  of  that  vilified  par 
ty,  representing  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people  in  revolt 
against  the  domination  of  effete  parties,  which  is  willing,  irre 
spective  of  the  chances  of  defeat  or  success,  like  its  great  leader, 
to  devote  itself  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  I  am  bound 
to  see,  and  will  see  that  contending  factions  do  not  make  the  for 
eign  vote  the  balance  of  power  in  this  country.  I  have  resolved 
that,  so  far  as  in  me  lies,  religion  shall  be  banished  from  politics, 
and  no  man  shall  attempt  to  invoke  the  religious  prejudices  of 
any  man.  Sir,  I  will  devote  myself  to  weeding  out  these  transac 
tions,  with  the  Secession  party  of  the  South,  with  the  Abolition 
party  of  the  North,  with  religious  parties  aspiring  to  political 
power,  be  they  Methodist  or  Catholic,  with  foreign  votes  that  can 
be  bought,  with  the  venal  of  all  parties,  who  play  the  game  of 
power  with  the  interests  of  the  people,  and  light  the  war  of  sec 
tional  interests  that  they  may  be  sutlers  to  the  camp.  And 
whether  we  succeed  to-day  or  not  until  to-morrow,  time  is  for  us, 
the  future  is  ours.  The  young  American  cries  the  name  of  the 
American  party,  and  imbibes  its  principles,  in  his  earliest  and 
pristine  vigor.  These  sentiments  will  not  die  out  for  a  genera 
tion,  and  in  less  than  a  generation  the  republic  can  be  saved.  I, 
sir,  shall  abide  by  that  candidate  who  has  been  selected  by  this 
party  to  protect  the  interests  of  this  country. 

Between  the  candidates  of  rival  factions  I  will  not  select.  I 
can  accept  no  statesman  of  twenty  days,  whose  only  principle  is 
the  forcing  of  the  Topeka  Constitution  on  the  necks  of  the  Kansas 
people,  without  pledges  to  the  future  for  good  behavior,  or  a  past 
to  read  the  future  by.  I  marvel  at  my  Eepublican  friends,  still 


62        A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COUNTRY  AGAINST  THE  SECTIONS. 

smarting  under  the  experience  of  what  one  unknown  man  may 
do,  walking  with  their  eyes  open  into  the  same  trap.  I  can  accept 
no  man  whose  tortuous  career  touches  alternately  each  extreme 
of  the  political  sphere,  his  political  life  merged  in  a  party  plat 
form,  and  chosen  of  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  to  torment 
the  North  to  madness,  and  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  this  admin 
istration  on  the  bloody  ground  of  Kansas.  I  have  no  preference 
between  two  men  who  dispute  the  doubtful  honor  of  applying 
the  torch  to  the  temple  of  the  Constitution. 

No  law  can  quiet  Kansas  unless  a  soothing  administration  soft 
en  the  exacerbated  feelings  of  the  people.  "With  such  an  admin 
istration  no  law  is  needed.  If  Mr.  Buchanan  be  elected,  he  will 
follow  the  bloody  policy  of  this  administration,  whose  sins  and 
glories — Greytown,  Ostend,  Kansas,  and  all — decorate  and  oppress 
him.  If  Mr.  Fremont  be  elected,  he  will  be  the  hero  of  a  counter 
revolution,  fierce  and  merciless  as  is  the  retaliation  of  the  op 
pressed — the  sport  of  fierce  passions,  to  which  he  will  owe  his 
power,  and  which  he  can  not  and  dare  not  control. 

I  shall,  in  this  crisis,  adhere  to  Millard  Fillmore,  who  knows 
not  where  the  South  ends  or  the  North  begins,  equally  above  fear 
or  flattery,  decorated  with  the  glory  of  an  illustrious  administra 
tion,  saluted  "  Pacificator"  by  the  acclaim  of  the  people,  and  now 
alone  capable  of  restoring  peace  to  this  distracted  land.  He  has 
been  tried  on  each  extreme  of  fortune.  He  has  passed  through 
the  torrid  zone  of  heady  and  tempestuous  youth  without  excess ; 
he  has  trod  the  temperate  zone  of  matured  manhood,  where  am 
bition  burns  with  strongest  flame,  and  reason  stands  ready  to 
minister  to  its  bidding,  unswayed  by  any  temptation ;  and  now, 
near  the  close  of  a  great  career,  in  that  last  zone  when  the  head 
is  covered  with  the  snows  of  many  winters  and  the  sun  of  reason 
knows  no  setting,  when  there  is  no  mist  to  cloud  the  eye  and  no 
passion  to  lead  astray  the  heart,  the  past  of  life  is  more  than  the 
future,  temptation  jeopards  more  than  it  can  promise,  and  only 
posterity  and  the  throne  of  God  are  before  him,  he  can  do  justice 
in  the  face  of  temptation,  and  between  contending  factions  who 
can  not  do  justice  to  themselves.  To  him  I  shall  adhere  in  every 
extremity.  To  him  I  summon  my  countrymen  in  the  name  of 
the  Union  he  saved.  And  in  this  great  issue  I  put  myself  on 
God  and  my  country. 


THE  PKESIDENT'S  MESSAGE   (1856).— THE 
TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION. 

MR.  DAVIS  took  an  active  part  in  favor  of  Mr.  Fillmore  in  the  canvass 
preceding  the  election  for  President  held  in  November,  1856,  and  which 
resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Buchanan.  At  the  following  (third)  session 
of  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  (December,  1856,  to  March,  1857)  Mr. 
Davis  was  named  on  the  Special  Committee  of  Investigation  into  alleged 
corrupt  practices  of  certain  members,  and  took  part  in  the  House  in  the 
debates  on  the  reports  and  conclusions  of  that  Committee ;  on  the  bill  to 
guard  against  corruption  and  corrupt  practices  in  legislation,  and  on  the 
bill  to  refund  duties  on  goods  destroyed  in  (United  States)  warehouses 
by  fire.  On  the  6th  of  January,  1857,  the  question  of  referring  the 
President's  Message  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the 
Union  being  under  consideration,  Mr.  Davis,  of  Maryland,  said : 

MR.  SPEAKER, — Grave  perplexities  have  arisen  in  interpreting 
the  teachings  of  the  late  election.  A  singular  diversity  of  views 
has  been  revealed.  Gentlemen  of  the  same  party  have  differed 
as  widely  as  those  of  opposite  parties.  The  gradually  widening 
circle  of  debate  has  drawn  in  great  numbers  on  every  side.  As 
Democrat  and  Kepublican  have  been  crippled  in  the  conflict, 
fresh  friends  have  poured  in  to  the  rescue;  and  the  result  of  every 
addition  has  been  that  doubt  has  been  piled  upon  doubt,  confu 
sion  has  become  worse  confounded,  until  he  who  attempts  to  read 
the  recent  election  by  the  recent  debate  in  this  House  will  find 
himself  with  authorities  for  any  opinion,  with  testimony  for  any 
fact,  with  views  confounded  and  unintelligible,  in  endless  mazes 
lost. 

The  gentlemen  of  the  administration  have  exhibited  some  sens 
itiveness  on  the  question  who  opened  the  debate.  Wherever  the 
responsibility  rests,  the  great  differences  of  opinion  that  it  has 
elicited  more  than  justify  me,  now  that  the  debate  has  raged  for 
weeks,  in  reviewing  the  field,  summing  up  the  results,  and  point 
ing  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  great  diversity  with  which 
the  question  they  have  decided,  and  the  judgment  they  are 
supposed  to  have  pronounced,  has  been  interpreted.  Sir,  this 


64  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

discussion  was  not  opened  either  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Campbell]  or  by  another  gentleman  in  the  other  wing  of 
the  Capitol,  now  not  far  distant  [Senator  Wilson].  It  origin 
ated  neither  in  this  House  nor  in  the  Senate.  Its  first  toord  is 
found  in  the  President's  Message.  He  was  justly  fearful  that  the 
people  might  mistake  their  approval  for  a  rebuke;  that  their 
unaided  vision  might  not  discover  the  comfort  under  the  castiga- 
tion,  nor  be  quite  aware  that  behind  a  frowning  Providence  they 
hid  a  smiling  face ;  and  therefore  he  wisely  availed  himself  of  his 
constitutional  privilege  to  lead  their  tottering  steps  in  the  way 
he  would  have  them  go.  So  witless  is  the  fling,  that  the  van 
quished  have  reopened  a  closed  controversy ! 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  imitate  the  spirit  which  breathes  through 
that  extraordinary  document.  They  only  can  fitly  apologize  for 
it  who  can  estimate  the  bitterness  of  a  spirit  broken  by  such  a 
fall !  I  do  not  care  to  open  any  controversy  either  with  its  state 
ments,  its  reasonings,  or  its  scoldings ;  but  I  may  be  allowed  to  use 
it  for  instruction,  and  the  country  to  profit  by  its  teachings.  It  re 
veals  some  facts  of  sinister  import.  The  President  first  teaches  us : 

"That  as  senators  represent  their  respective  states,  and  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  their  respective  constituencies  in  each  of  the  states,  so  the  Presi 
dent  represents  the  aggregate,  population  of  the  United  States .'" 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  said  to  an  insubordinate  assembly,  "You 
are  only  the  deputies  of  single  provinces — I  represent  the  nation  /'' 
Thus  to  compare  small  things  with  great,  our  President  respect 
fully  assigns  us  our  lower  sphere,  wherein  we  should  behave  not 
unseemly.  Be  it  so,  Mr.  Speaker.  Amid  all  the  diversities,  there 
is  one  fact  which  no  one  has  controverted.  It  was  fairly  stated 
by  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee,  and  is  apparent  on  every 
return  of  the  aggregate  vote.  Mr.  Buchanan  ascends  the  chair 
of  state  against  the  will  of  a  majority  of  about  four  hundred 
thousand  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  If,  therefore,  the 
President  represents  the  aggregate  population  of  the  Union,  Mr. 
Buchanan  does  not  represent,  but  misrepresents  the  people  of  the 
United  States ! 

The  President  farther  instructs  us  in  what  the  people  have 
decided  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan.  "  They  have  asserted," 
he  says,  "the  constitutional  equality  of  each  and  all  of  the  states 
of  the  Union,  as  states.'11  He  means  that  they  who  by  their  votes 
elected  Mr.  Buchanan,  voted  for  that  principle  contested  by  their 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  65 

opponents,  or  he  means  nothing.  If  it  has  settled  that  principle, 
it  proves  that  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
opposed  to  the  equality  of  the  states  ! 

"  They  have  affirmed,"  says  the  President,  "  the  constitutional 
equality  of  each  and  all  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  as 
citizens,  whatever  their  religion,  wherever  their  birth  or  their 
residence."  If  so,  then  it  proves  that  a  great  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  deny  the  equality  of  the  United  States — 
deny  their  equality  by  reason  of  their  religion — deny  their  equalit}7 
by  reason  of  their  residence — deny  their  equality  by  reason  of 
their  birth ! 

"  They  have  asserted,"  says  the  President,  "  the  inviolability  of 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  different  sections  of  the  Union." 
Then  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  in  the 
late  contest  been  inimical  to  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  states, 
and  have  been  endeavoring  to  break  them  down ! 

The  President  farther  informs  us  that  "  they  have  proclaimed 
their  devoted  and  unalterable  attachment  to  the  Union  and  the 
Constitution,  as  objects  of  interest  superior  to  all  subjects  of  local 
or  sectional  controversy,  as  the  safeguard  of  the  rights  of  all,  as 
the  spirit  and  the  essence  of  the  liberty,  peace,  and  greatness  of 
the  republic." 

If  so,  then  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
declared  against  those  great  principles ;  they  are  inimical  to  the 
existence  of  this  Constitution;  they  are  inimical  to  the  rights  of 
'some  great  sections  of  the  country ;  they  are  bent  on  war  and  not 
on  peace ;  for  a  great  majority  of  the  people  have  voted  against 
the  man  who,  the  President  says,  is  the  sj^mbol  of  this  decision. 
Sir,  if  the  President's  opinion  is  right,  that  those  great  and  vital 
principles  were  in  contest,  then  the  vote  of  the  people  is  more 
full  of  awful  portent  than  any  they  have  ever  cast,  and  the  day 
of  our  dissolution  draws  nigh.  If  they  were  not  in  contest,  then 
that  message  is  the  most  ungracious  sarcasm  ever  flung  by  a 
President  on  the  people  who  lifted  him  above  his  fellows. 

It  is  of  evil  example  for  the  President  to  have  departed,  in  the 
language  of  his  message,  from  the  severe  courtesy,  the  respectful 
reserve,  the  passionless  dignity  observed  by  his  predecessors  in 
alluding  to  the  conduct  of  sovereign  states,  or  the  motives  of 
great  bodies  of  the  people  in  the  highest  function  of  their  sover 
eignty.  It  is  of  all  things  most  deplorable  that,  elevated  above 

E 


6$  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

the  turbulent  atmosphere  of  a  popular  canvass,  the  President 
should  have  stooped  to  the  region  of  the  storm,  been  swayed  by 
the  passions  of  the  strife  whose  excesses  it  was  his  high  duty  to 
have  restrained,  and  that,  stung  by  the  great  condemnation  of  the 
vote  of  the  people,  should  have  poured  out  the  bitterness  of  his 
heart  in  sharp  vituperation  of  his  judges,  forgotten  the  President 
in  the  partisan,  and  inflamed  the  passions  already  consuming  the 
vitals  of  the  republic. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  people  have  taught  some  lessons  worthy 
of  being  learned — not  those  the  President  would  inculcate,  nor 
such  as  are  grateful  to  Democratic  hearts — yet  fruitful  of  warning 
and  admonition,  and  quite  visible  to  the  dullest  eye. 

It  proves  that  a  minority  of  the  people  desired  to  see  Mr. 
Buchanan  President  of  the  United  States.  Nobody  ever  doubted 
that. 

It  proves  that  a  minority  of  the  people  were  in  favor  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  Nobody  ever  questioned  that. 

It  proves  that  a  minority  of  the  people  approve  of  President 
Pierce's  administration.  Nobody  ever  doubted  that ;  but  nobody 
knows  how  small  that  minority  is. 

It  proves  that  a  minority  of  the  people  are  content  that  his 
system  of  misrule  may  be  prolonged  for  another  four  years. 
Nobody  ever  doubted  that. 

It  proves  that  the  minority  which  preferred  Mr.  Buchanan  was 
so  located  in  various  states,  that  under  the  Constitution  it  could 
cast  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  the  electoral  college ;  and  this  is 
the  only  point  touching  that  minority  about  which  there  teas  ever  much 
doubt. 

It  proves  farther,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  a  majority  of  the  people 
have  condemned  the  Democratic  party. 

It  proves  that  a  majority  of  the  people  are  opposed  to  that  ad 
ministration  of  President  Pierce,  which  a  minority  propose  to 
continue  for  four  years. 

It  proves  that  a  majority  of  people  of  the  country  think  it  time 
that  the  misgovernment  of  Kansas  should  cease. 

It  proves  that  no  diversity  of  interpretation  can  extort  any 
thing  but  condemnation  of  the  principles  and  the  purposes  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  from  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  country. 

It  proves  that  Mr.  Buchanan  comes  into  power  with  a  decided 
majority  9f  the  people  against  him;  with  every  proposed  princi- 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  (J7 

pie  of  his  administration  condemned  beforehand;  with  the  great 
Democratic  majority  in  the  Senate  narrowed  to  the  very  verge  of 
a  bare  working  majority ;  with  the  House  of  Kepresentatives,  so 
far  as  any  experience  teaches,  against  him ;  with  only  about  one 
third  of  the  representatives  from,  the  North  in  his  favor,  and  they 
chiefly  representing  minorities,  and  chosen  by  the  divisions  of 
their  opponents ;  and  thus  that,  for  all  his  cherished  purposes  of 
mischief,  his  administration  is  paralyzed  before  its  birth. 

Still  more,  sir,  it  dissipates  the  sweet  delusion  of  the  dead  he 
roes  of  the  Nebraska  Act,  that  there  was  a  day  of  resurrection  for 
them.  It  demonstrates  that  the  blast  which  prostrated  its  friends 
in  the  North  was  no  passing  squall ;  that  no  sober  second  thought 
has  changed  their  first  thought;  but  that  a  settled  and  unchange 
able  hostility  through  all  the  North  condemns  them  to  a  hopeless 
and  pitiable  minority.  The  death-wound,  I  rather  think,  has  been 
dealt  to  that  party  which  insolently  boasted  itself  a  perpetual 
plague  to  the  republic,  but  now — worse  than  the  scotched  snake — 
staggers  to  its  grave  like  a  wounded  gladiator,  whose  fall,  even 
in  the  arms  of  victory,  wins  for  him  neither  pity  nor  a  crown. 

These  are  some  of  the  lessons  about  which  I  think  there  can  be 
very  little  difference  of  opinion.  They  need  only  the  teaching 
of  numbers.  They  need  only  to  count  the  results  of  the  ballot- 
box.  They  depend  on  no  adjustment  of  the  difference  of  princi 
ple  between  the  different  portions  of  the  party.  They  are  irre 
spective  of  the  question  whether  the  approval  of  President  Pierce's 
administration  was  made  or  evaded  north  of  Mason  and  Dix- 
on's  line.  They  still  stand,  no  matter  what  meaning  was  assign 
ed  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  any  where.  On  a  simple  count 
of  the  voices  of  the  judges — even  admitting  a  Northern  and  a 
Southern  Democrat  to  mean  the  same  thing — it  appears  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  country  are  tired  of  its  men,  are  hostile  to 
its  principles,  condemn  its  measures,  mock  at  its  blunders,  are 
weary  of  its  agitations,  abhor  its  sectional  warfare,  and  have  order 
ed  hue  and  cry  to  be  made  against  every  thing  bearing  the  name 
of  Democrat  as  a  disturber  of  the  public  peace.  Instead  of  re 
pentance  and  reform  under  the  discipline  administered  two  years 
ago,  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  country  have  beheld  with 
alarm  every  element  of  electioneering  torture  applied  to  wring 
from  the  terrors  of  the  country  an  approval,  real  or  apparent,  of 
the  conduct  of  the  administration ;  and  they  have  by  this  great 


68  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (185G). 

vote  indicated  their  abiding  hostility  to  a  policy  which  has  brought 
the  republic  to  the  yerge  of  ruin.  This,  I  take  it,  is  the  judg 
ment  of  the  American  people — only  they  were  so  unfortunate  as  to 
differ  as  to  the  measures  of  redress ;  and  the  penalty  of  this  blunder 
is  the  continuance  of  that  domination  in  the  executive  chair  for  four 
years  more. 

Thus  condemned  by  the  popular  vote,  these  gentlemen  of  the 
minority  are  ingenious  in  extracting  an  approval  of  their  policy 
and  principles,  but  in  the  vain  effort  they  have  revealed  that  the 
minority  itself  is  divided  as  much  with  itself  as  from  its  oppo 
nents.  While  claiming  an  approval  of  their  principles  by  the 
country,  the  minority  is  itself  wrangling  as  to  what  those  princi 
ples  are. 

The  world  has  long  known  that  they  were  divided  on  every 
question  of  domestic  policy — that  their  harmonious  ranks  included 
protectionists  and  anti-protectionists.  The  last  session  exhibited 
great  internal  improvement  bills  passed  over  the  veto  by  Demo 
cratic  votes.  But  still  they  boasted  that  on  the  slavery  question 
—the  shibboleth  of  their  faith — Democrats  were  every  where  the 
same  faithful  friends  of  the  Southern  and  Northern  rights — alone 
at  the  North  worthy  of  trust.  They  passed  the  Kansas  Act  to  vin 
dicate  the  right  of  the  South  to  enter  Territories  with  their  slaves ; 
they,  therefore,  alone,  are  worthy  of  Southern  countenance! 
They  have  wrung  from  the  country  the  approval  of  the  principles 
of  that  act ;  they  have  vindicated  the  equality  of  the  states  ;  they 
have  asserted  the  right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  frame  their 
own  domestic  institutions ;  and  for  these  things  the  country  has 
conferred  power  on  them  ! 

Sir,  the  Kansas  Act  was  an  enigma  till  read  by  the  light  of  the 
late  election.  What  my  opinions  of  it  are  is  immaterial.  I  de 
sire  now  to  deal  with  it  historically — to  deduce  some  conclusions 
from  the  discussion  that  has  rolled  around  me  for  so  long. 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  was  introduced,  it  is  said,  to  vindi 
cate  the  equality  of  the  states,  and  the  right  of  the  South  to  carry 
their  slaves  into  the  Territories.  That  act  conferred  on  the  Ter 
ritorial  Legislature  power  "  over  all  proper  subjects  of  legislation  ;" 
and  its  framers,  for  fear  that  there  might  be  one  subject  of  legis 
lation  that  was  withdrawn  from  their  consideration,  in  extending 
over  them  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  said,  "  Excepting  the 
law  of  1820,  which,  being  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  the 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  09 

legislation  of  1850,  is  hereby  declared  inoperative  and  void,  it 
being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act" — as  if  there  might 
have  been  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  country  as  to  what  that  act 
intended  to  confer  on  the  people — "it  being  the  intent  of  this  act 
to  leave  the  people  of  the  Territory  [ay,  sir,  '  of  the  Territory'] 
perfectly  free  to  form  their  own  institutions  to  suit  themselves." 
Early  in  the  last  session  of  Congress  it  became  apparent  that  there 
was  a  diversity  as  to  the  object  and  effect  of  that  act.  As  the 
session  progressed,  that  diversity  grew  wider.  Those  same  words 
were  carried  into  the  Democratic  platform  ;  they  were  carried  into 
the  discussions  before  the  people ;  and  I  now  desire  to  ask,  in  the 
face  of  gentlemen,  how  far  there  is  any  conformity  of  views  be 
tween  the  two  wings  of  the  Democratic  party  ?  I  aver  at  the 
outset  that  they  are  as  widely  divided  as  is  the  Eepublican  party 
from  the  Democratic  party,  and  upon  exactly  the  same  question 
of  constitutional  power  that  rests  at  the  bottom  of  the  words  of 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act. 

There  can  be  no  controversy,  I  presume,  among  gentlemen 
here  as  to  this  great  fact,  that  the  language  of  the  Kansas-Ne 
braska  Act  confers  by  grant,  as  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr. 
Stephens]  so  accurately  described  it  this  morning,  upon  the  peo 
ple  of.the  Territories  all  the  legislative  powers  that  Congress  can 
confer ;  and  as  the  Constitution  says  that  "  all  legislative  power 
herein  granted  is  vested  in  the  Congress,  which  shall  consist  of  a 
Senate  and  House  of  Eepresentatives,"  it  is  plain  that,  unless  the 
doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty  as  expounded  by  the  gentleman 
from  Georgia  be  accurate,  then  this  Congress  has  conferred  all  the 
power  upon  the  people  of  the  Territories  which  can  exist  under 
the  Constitution,  and  that  they  have,  and  can  have,  no  power 
from  any  other  source.  Now  the  pinch  arises.  One  set  of  gen 
tlemen  say,  "  Ob,  that  bill  does  not  authorize  the  people  of  the 
Territories  to  exclude  slavery."  Another  set  of  gentlemen  say, 
"Oh,  that  bill  does  authorize  the  people  to  exclude  slavery." 
Then  we  have  explanations  from  the  Southern  wing  of  the  party 
that  it  authorizes  them  to  exclude  it  only  when  they  come  to  form 
their  state  Constitution.  "  No,"  say  Democratic  gentlemen  from 
the  North,  "the  language  is  universal;  it  authorizes  the  people 
of  the  Territories  to  exercise  all  legislative  power  consistent  with 
the  Constitution,  and  we  say  that  they  can  exercise  it  now,  in  their 
Territorial  condition"  As  a  mere  question  of  legal  interpretation, 


70  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

there  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  words.  There 
may  arise  a  question  whether  Congress  have  power  to  confer  that 
authority ;  but  if  Congress  have  it,  then  unquestionably  it  has 
been  conferred. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  difference  between  the  two  wings  of  the 
Democratic  party.  It  is  not,  Mr.  Speaker,  a  mere  difference  of 
interpretation.  It  is  not  a  mere  dispute  about  the  legal  meaning 
of  the  words  they  have  used.  It  is  not  a  mere  accident  of  legis 
lation  which  a  scratch  of  the  pen  could  change.  It  is  not  some 
thing  which  has  been  sprung  upon  them  by  accident,  of  which 
they  had  no  notice  before  its  arrival.  But  upon  that  most  deli 
cate  of  all  questions — that  one  on  which  the  minority  boast  them 
selves  the  special  defenders  of  the  South,  and  in  reference  to  which 
they  say  their  Northern  brethren  are  more  faithful  than  other 
gentlemen  at  the  North — on  that  question,  and  not  upon  the  in 
terpretation  of  the  language  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  there  is 
a  radical,  inherent,  profound  difference,  splitting  them  from  top  to 
bottom,  as  irreconcilable  as  any  other  diversity  of  party  views 
that  can  be  exhibited  in  the  history  of  the  republic.  It  can  not 
be  pushed  aside  as  a  mere  diversity  of  opinion  on  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act,  because  it  is  carried  back  to  the  very  foundation 
of  the  Constitution.  And  then  we  can  understand,  what  other 
wise,  perhaps,  we  might  not  so  well  be  able  to  understand,  how  it 
is  that  the  Northern  gentlemen  of  the  Democratic  party  have  sup 
ported  the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  and  have  united 
in  the  election  of  a  President.  Why,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  propriety- 
of  that  act  was  not  submitted  to  the  people  now  at  this  election. 
That  question  was  passed  upon  in  the  election  of  this  Congress ; 
and  this  side  of  the  House  gives  the  answer  of  the  whole  North 
as  to  whether  it  ought  or  ought  not  to  have  been  passed.  No 
one  proposed  its  repeal,  and  the  restoration  of  the  compromise, 
but  Mr.  Dunn,  and  that  was  made  a  ground  of  attack  by  North 
ern  Democrats  on  Republicans.  The  question  at  the  North  was 
one  of  reprisal  and  retaliation,  revenge  and  conquest — not  defense 
and  restoration  ;  and  Democrats  and  Eepublicans  only  argued  the 
question,  which  of  the  two  best  represented  the  North  in  that  con 
test  for  the  Territories. 

But  then  another  question  arose,  whether  there  could  not  be 
such  an  interpretation  put  upon  that  act  as  would  enable  gentle 
men  at  the  North  still  to  stand  with  the  Democratic  party,  and 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  71 

cast  their  votes  for  the  same  man,  although  differing  in  principle 
and  pursuing  a  policy  not  merely  different  from,  but  hostile  to, 
the  purpose  of  the  Southern  Democrats.  Therefore  it  is,  that 
while  at  the  South  we  have  heard  a  universal  interpretation  that 
that  act  does  not  confer  upon — that  there  is  no  power  in  the  peo 
ple  of  a  Territory  to  exclude  slavery — and  I  speak  now  in  the 
face  of  a  great  majority  of  Southern  gentlemen  who  were  active 
in  the  canvass,  and  who  can  correct  me  if  wrong — I  say  there 
was  a  unanimous  interpretation  by  Democratic  gentlemen  through 
out  the  South  as  to  the  purpose,  meaning,  and  effect  of  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  Act — we  can  understand  how  it  was  that,  while 
throughout  the  whole  South  that  law  was  claimed  as  a  great 
Southern  triumph,  not  merely  in  point  of  principle,  but  in  point 
of  policy  and  fact,  as  opening  a  hitherto  barred  territory  to  slavery, 
and  giving  a  chance  for  another  slave  state  to  restore  the  dis 
turbed  equilibrium  of  the  Union — as  something  to  bind  the  South 
to  the  Democratic  party  forever  for  the  great  boon  conferred  upon 
them,  the  Democrats  of  the  North  could  say,  "  We  will  accept 
with  them  that  measure,  not  that  we  would  have  dared  to  have 
voted  for  it — not  that  we  would  have  dared  to  have  advocated  it ; 
but  now  that  the  thing  is  done  and  can  not  be  undone,  preferring 
the  Democratic  party  to  any  other  party,  and  seeing  their  strength 
at  the  South,  we  are  willing  to  aid  that  party  at  the  South,  and 
we  are  willing  to  adopt  the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Act — with  a  gloss,  yielding  none  of  our  principles,  not  admitting, 
for  a  single  instant,  that  Congress  has  not  the  power  to  legislate 
upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Territories — not  breathing  such 
a  suggestion,  yet  we  are  willing  to  abide  by  the  principles  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  as  we  shall  interpret  it."  How  interpret  it  ? 
"  It  is  the  best  measure  for  freedom  ;  it  breaks  down  all  the  com 
promises  ;  it  leaves  the  question  open  ;  it  confers  legislative  power 
upon  the  people  of  the  Territory.  We  will  agree  that  the  people 
of  a  Territory  have  power  over  the  question  of  slavery.  You 
will  never  hear  of  another  slave  state :  we  will  make  Kansas  a 
free  state ;  and  therefore  we  are  willing  to  abide  by  the  principles 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  because,  although  it  ought  not  to 
have  been  passed,  it  perhaps  will  do  no  harm.  While  our  South 
ern  brethren  say  it  is  a  Southern  triumph,  we  will  claim  it  as  a 
Northern  one.  That  will  enable  us  to  maintain  our  position  at 
the  North  in  the  party,  and  give  us  the  full  advantage  of  our 


72  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

overwhelming  power  to  vote  slavery  from  the  Territories."  Why, 
sir,  in  more  than  one  handbill,  and  in  more  than  one  newspaper, 
how  many  it  boots  not  to  inquire,  it  has  been  seen — yea,  I  have 
seen  with  my  own  eyes,  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  Kepub- 
licans  taunted  by  Democrats  with  being  opposed  to  freedom  for 
having  voted  for  Dunn's  bill.  I  saw  in  more  than  one  place — in 
more  than  one  handbill — proclaimed  "  Buchanan,  Breckinridge, 
and  Free  Kansas !"  and  the  result  of  the  colloquy  which  took 
place  upon  this  floor  between  two  gentlemen  from  Illinois  the 
other  day,  shows  how  far  authorities  can  agree  as  to  what  posi 
tion  was  assumed  by  the  Democratic  party  in  that  state. 

I  have  nowhere  here  heard  it  asserted  that  it  was  any  where 
maintained  as  an  accepted  dogma  of  that  party  at  the  North,  that 
Congress  had  no  power  over  the  question*  of  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories  ;  that  the  people  had  no  power  over  it  in  the  Territories ; 
that  the  people  ought  not  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territory 
of  Kansas  ;  that  they  were  opposed  to  the  people  doing  it ;  and 
unless  there  be  gentlemen  who  can  reconcile  and  justify  all  those 
things,  then  there  is  as  great  and  wide  a  gulf  in  point  of  policy, 
as  there  is  in  point  of  constitutional  principle,  between  the  Demo 
crats  of  the  North  and  the  Democrats  of  the  South.  For  what 
matters  it  to  the  South  that  Congress  shall  not  interfere  if  another 
instrument  is  substituted  which  will  interfere  ?  Is  it  more  humili 
ating  to  the  South  to  have  a  line  of  fair  division,  like  that  of  1820, 
giving  part  to  the  South  and  part  to  the  North — aline  and  bound 
ary  of  peace  forever  established  here  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States — than  to  be  rudely  expelled  by  a  Congress  of  Kan 
sas  squatters? — here,  where  she  is  represented  by  her  eloquent 
sons ;  in  the  Senate,  where  she  is  protected  by  her  equal  vote ; 
by  the  President,  armed  with  the  veto  against  all  oppression, 
rather  than  there,  where  she  is  not  represented,  has  no  voice,  and 
no  veto  ?  Or  are  her  interests  more  likely  to  be  tenderly  dealt 
with  by  the  rude  backwoodsman  or  the  European  Keel  Eepubli- 
can  ?  Or,  if  she  may  be  excluded,  is  it  so  much  more  to  her 
taste,  or  does  it  better  comport  with  her  dignity,  that  a  few  ram 
bling  emigrants  get  together  in  a  log  cabin  by  our  authority- 
ay,  under  that  bulwark  of  Southern  rights,  the  Kansas  Act — and, 
to  improve  the  price  of  land,  proclaim  that  slavery  shall  not  exist 
— that  at  the  line  a  man  in  a  hunting-shirt,  with  a  rifle  on  his 
shoulder  and  a  bowie-knife  at  his  belt,  shall  flaunt  a  blotched 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  73 

copy  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  in  the  face  of  the  Southern  emigrant, 
and  bid  him  back  in  the  name  of  the  squatter  kings — than  that 
here,  on  solemn  consultation,  such  partition  be  made  that  peace, 
and  not  war,  may  reign  in  the  republic  ?  Does  that  mode  of  set 
tling  the  matter  touch  the  dignity  of  the  South  less ;  or,  rather, 
does  it  not  touch  it  more?  Or  is  justice  more  or  less  likely  to  be 
done? 

"  Oh,  but  it's  of  no  consequence  at  all,"  say  the  gentlemen  from 
Tennessee  and  South  Carolina,  "for  if  the  people  are  opposed  to 
slavery  they  won't  protect  it !"  Indeed !  then  it  is  only  more  ap 
parent  that  the  only  point  of  agreement  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  Democrats  is  in  the  fact  that  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  law  or  without  law,  they  both  admit  slavery  may  be  excluded. 
One  would  suppose  the  South  had  small  favor  to  be  grateful  for. 
A  right  without  a  remedy  is  the  lawyer's  absurdity ;  yet  for  tiiis 
the  country  has  been  brought  to  the  verge  of  civil  war ! 

Prostrated  in  one  effort,  they  try  their  limping  logic  on  another. 
Their  merit  and  unity  consist  in  their  assertion  of  the  equality  of 
the  states  and  the  right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  form  their 
own  domestic  institutions — the  principles  of  the  acts  of  1850  vio 
lated  by  that  of  1820,  and  restored  and  reinaugurated  by  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  its  vivifying  principle. 

Sir,  the  President  libeled  the  living,  and  his  friends  rob  the 
dead  to  cover  his  nakedness.  The  very  purpose  and  principle  of 
the  act  of  1820  were  to  vindicate  the  equality  of  the  states,  and 
the  right  of  the  people  to  form  their  own  Constitution  without 
control ;  it  was  signed  by  Mr.  Monroe  for  that  very  reason  ;  and 
they  doubly  blunder  in  law  and  history  when  under  pretense  of 
those  principles  they  repeal  it. 

The  acts  of  1850  inaugurated  no  new  principle.  They  were 
acts  of  compromise — giving  and  taking,  like  that  of  1820 — wisely 
suited  to  the  present  necessity,  leaving  unrepealed  the  laws  of  the 
central  government  of  Mexico,  and,  if  Congress  could  pass  them, 
in  full  force  as  laws  of  Congress,  just  as  the  French  and  Spanish 
laws  were  left  in  full  force  in  Florida  and  Louisiana  when  repeal 
ed  north  of  36  deg.  30  rnin.  by  the  act  of  1820. 

If  the  acts  of  1850  provided  for  the  admission  of  states  with  or 
without  slavery  as  the  people  might  prefer,  then  that  was  the  very 
principle  consecrated  forever  as  the  law  of  the  republic  by  the  act 
of  1820 ;  for  the  one  purpose  of  the  law  of  1820  was  to  divide  the 


74  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

territory  between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  by  the  same  au 
thority  to  make  one  part  slave  ancl  the  other  part  free  territory, 
while  a  Territory ;  and  the  other  thing  settled  in  that  law — and 
from  that  day  down  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  never  assailed 
or  controverted  by  any  party  known  to  the  history  of  the  repub 
lic,  and  remaining  now  the  accepted  and  conceded  law  of  the  Con 
stitution  every  where,  except  among  a  few  wild  abolitionists  of 
the  Garrison  and  Beecher  school — was,  that  the  people  of  the  Ter 
ritory  could,  and  alone  could,  frame  their  own  institutions  when 
they  come  to  form  their  state  Constitution ;  and  that  Congress 
could  neither  impose  a  condition  precedent,  nor  bind  by  a  compact 
their  absolute  sovereignty  over  the  matter.  The  effort  in  the 
Missouri  contest  was  to  place  an  inhibition  on  the  State  of  Mis 
souri — to  cause  the  people  of  that  Territory  to  provide  specially 
in  their  Constitution  against  the  existence  of  slavery.  It  was  that 
which  was  voted  down — voted  clown,  as  I  have  said  before,  on  the 
immortal  argument  of  William  Pinckney,  of  Maryland,  who  then 
stood  as  Maryland  would  always  have  her  sons  to  stand,  defend 
ing  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  weaker  against  the  aggressions 
of  the  stronger ;  whose  words  of  glory,  vindicating  the  absolute 
equality  of  the  states  against  the  usurpation  of  the  United  States, 
form  the  fit  prelude  to  that  equal  argument  of  the  man  of  Massa 
chusetts,  who,  ten  years  after,  maintained  the  supremacy  of  the 
United  States  against  the  encroachments  of  the  states.  On  those 
Cyclopean  foundations  have  ever  rested,  and  still  unshaken  rest, 
those  two  pillars  of  the  Constitution,  the  absolute  and  inalienable 
equality  of  the  states  in  their  sovereign  functions,  and  the  equally 
absolute  supremacy  of  the  United  States  within  the  sphere  of  their 
conceded  powers ;  the  one  unquestioned  except  by  the  Democrats 
of  the  State-rights  and  Secession  school,  the  other  never  violated 
except — by  whom  ? — by  the  Democratic  party  in  their  Texas  reso 
lutions,  which  imposed,  carelessly  or  deliberately,  but  expressly, 
upon  future  states — yes,  states  by  name  and  not  by  implication — 
the  very  inhibition  which  Pinckney  and  Clay  excluded  from  the 
statute-book  by  the  act  of  1820 — the  gentlemen  of  that  party  who 
now  impeach  that  great  act,  and  its  great  authors,  of  violating  the 
equality  of  the  states,  and  invading  the  right  of  the  people  to  form 
their  own  Constitutions ;  for,  unless  the  act  of  1820  did  those  things, 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  is  defenseless  and  senseless.  Sir,  are  they 
not  content  to  have  pulled  down  the  monument  and  decorate 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  75 

themselves  with  its  rifled  trophies,  without  staining  the  memory 
of  the  great  dead  with  the  reproach  of  the  very  thing  they  pre 
vented  others  from  doing  ? 

But,  they  say,  if  there  be  differences,  yet  we  agree  in  this — not 
to  agitate  the  question  in  Congress — forsooth  where  their  divisions 
are  inconveniently  visible,  and  bring  scandal  at  the  South — but 
to  refer  it  to  the  Territories,  where  the  two  wings  can  privately 
fight  it  out !  How  will  the  two  divisions  of  the  minority  silence 
the  majority?  Or  is  the  President's  Message  an  illustration  of 
their  silence  ?  or  do  they  expect  the  North  to  keep  silence  before 
it  ?  or  are  they  ignorant  that  they  would  die  of  silence  in  a  year  ? 

These  were  not  the  purposes  of  the  Kansas  Act,  Mr.  Speaker, 
in  my  opinion.  I  think  it  was  an  electioneering  manoeuvre.  That 
has  been,  at  least,  its  effect,  and  its  only  effect.  To  the  South  it 
has  secured  neither  a  Territory,  nor  a  state,  nor  a  constitutional 
principle,  nor  peace.  Its  authors  tear  each  other  about  its  mean 
ing,  and  pursue  diametrically  opposite  purposes  under  its  cover. 
They  have  accomplished  nothing  but  to  reopen  a  dangerous  agi 
tation — to  bring  themselves  into  hopeless  minority,  crippled  by 
internal  divisions. 

There  is  another  lesson  taught  by  this  election.  The  Demo 
cratic  party  has  ceased  to  be  a  homogeneous  body.  It  is  bound 
together  by  no  unity  of  principle.  It  is  a  conglomerate  of  incon 
gruous  materials — Whigs  a"nd  State-rights  men,  and  Secessionists, 
and  Democrats,  and  Free-Kansas  Democrats,  and  Free-Soilers,  and 
Union  men — not  a  mosaic,  for  that  is  a  work  of  art — but  huddled 
together  by  the  confusion  of  the  conflict.  The  Irish  brigade  stood 
firm,  and  saved  them  from  annihilation ;  and  the  foreign  recruits 
in  Pennsylvania  turned  the  fate  of  the  day.  They  have  elected, 
by  these  foreigners,  by  a  minority  of  the  American  people,  a  Presi 
dent  to  represent  their  divisions ! 

The  first  levee  of  President  Buchanan  will  be  a  curious  scene. 
He  is  a  quiet,  simple,  fair-spoken  gentleman,  versed  in  the  by 
paths  and  indirect  crooked  ways  whereby  he  met  this  crown,  and 
he  will  soon  know  how  uneasy  it  sits  upon  his  head.  Some  fu 
ture  Walpole  may  detail  the  curious  greetings,  the  unexpected 
meetings,  the  cross  purposes,  and  shocked  prejudices  of  the  gen 
tlemen  who  cross  the  threshold.  Some  honest  Democrat  of  the 
South  will  thank  God  for  the  Union  preserved.  A  gentleman  of 
the  disunionist  school  will  congratulate  the  President  on  the  de- 


76  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

feat  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  whose  quiet  administration  might  have  post 
poned  the  inevitable  day.  The  slavery  propagandist  will  vaunt 
his  triumph  over  the  unwieldy  North,  and  boast  of  conquered 
Kansas ;  while  the  Northern  gentlemen  will  whisper  "  Buchanan, 
Breckinridge,  and  free  Kansas"  in  the  presidential  ear,  and  beg 
without  scandal  the  confirmation  of  their  hopes.  Some  Whig 
will  remind  him  of  the  California  letter,  and  exact  the  Pacific  Kail- 
road  at  his  hands;  while  the  strict  construction  Democrat  will 
execrate  the  usurpation,  and  cast  sinister  innuendoes  against  the 
mail  which  would  not  reveal  its  contents  this  side  the  Pacific. 
Pennsylvania  will  be  touching  in  the  cause  of  iron,  and  plead  the 
merits  of  the  October  election  ;  while  Democrats  from  the  South 
and  West  plot  the  treason  of  free  railroad  iron,  and  carefully  ad 
just  the  loss  and  gain  in  votes.  The  Ostend  Manifesto  will  be 
respectfully  spoken  of,  and  a  Northern  and  Southern  Democrat  in 
a  corner  will  nicely  balance  free  trade  against  a  slave  state,  and 
suggest  that  an  imprudent  steamer  may  favor  the  application  of 
the  principles  of  the  manifesto,  the  President  the  while  repeating 
to  some  enthusiastic  Free-Soiler  his  resolution  of  1819,  to  "pre 
vent  the  existence  of  slavery  in  any  of  the  Territories  or  states 
which  may  be  erected  l>y  Congress  /" 

But  how  to  divide  the  spoils  among  this  motley  crew — ah ! 
there's  the  rub.  There  are  gentlemen  who  have  united  from 
every  creed  and  every  party,  and  who  make  up  this  conglomerate 
of  the  present  Democratic  partj^,  having  changed  no  principles, 
still  holding  jealously  the  position  of  allies,  not  being  embodied 
into  the  party,  but  maintaining  their  own  individuality.  Sir,  I 
envy  not  the  nice  and  delicate  scales  which  must  distribute  the 
patronage  amid  the  jarring  elements  of  that  conglomerate — as 
fierce  against  each  other  as  clubs  in  cards  are  against  spades — 
which  must  decide  whether  the  gentlemen  of  the  Whig  party  who 
only  acted  as  allies  should  be  received  and  accepted  as  candidates 
for  high  office ;  whether  gentlemen  of  the  Free-Soil  school  should 
sit  down  with  gentlemen  of  the  Cincinnati  school ;  whether  the 
past  shall  be  rasa  tabula,  or  the  criterion  of  acceptance  or  exclu 
sion.  There  will  be  required  a  nice  discrimination  and  a  careful 
adjustment  by  some  skillful  accountant  in  party  politics,  in  that 
curious  chancery  for  the  distribution  of  the  spoils,  to  determ 
ine  the  shares  of  Northern  Democrats  who  were  faithful,  but 
failed,  and  Northern  Free-Soilers  who  were  heretics,  but  useful ; 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  77 

of  the  Whig  convert  and  the  Whig  ally ;  of  Whig  gentlemen  of 
name  —  leaders  who  left  their  followers  in  their  transition;  of 
Whig  leaders  in  states  where  they  were  zealous  but  not  needed, 
and  in  states  where  they  were  zealous  and  needed,  but  powerless. 
And  long  ere  this  can  be  adjusted  the  clamors  of  the  foreign  legion 
will  add  to  the  interest  of  the  scene — the  vision  of  King  George's 
judgment  over  again : 

"  There  crashed  a  sturdy  oath  of  stout  John  Bull, 
Who  damned  away  his  eyes  as  heretofore. 
Here  Paddy  brogued  '  by  Jasus.'     '  What's  your  wull  ?' 
The  temperate  Scot  exclaimed :  and,  'mid  the  war, 
The  voice  of  Jonathan  was  heard  to  express, 
'  Our  President  is  going  to  war,  I  guess.'  " 

They  may  not  be  disregarded,  for  but  for  them  Pennsylvania 
was  lost,  and  with  it  the  day.  Yet  what  will  satisfy  those  indis 
pensable  allies,  now  conscious  of  their  power?  That,  sir,  is  the 
exact  condition  of  things  which  will  be  found  in  the  antechamber 
—  exorbitant  demands,  limited  means,  irreconcilable  divisions, 
strife,  disunion,  dissolution  —  whenever  the  President  shall  have 
taken  the  solemn  oath  of  office,  and  darkened  the  doors  of  the 
White  House. 

And  there  are  lessons  taught  to  the  Republican  gentlemen  of 
this  House  as  well  as  to  the  Democrats.  They  have  been  taught 
that,  great  as  was  the  wrong ;  blundering  as  was  the  policy  of  the 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  act;  earnest  as  are  the  Northern  people 
against  the  extension  of  slavery ;  resolved  as  they  are  that  no 
more  slave  territory  shall  be  added  to  this  country,  they  have  like 
wise  shown  that  there  is  still  one  principle  which  they  will  not 
sanction.  They  will  not  sanction  a  merely  sectional  canvass  for 
the  presidency,  nor  intrust  with  the  government  a  party  whose 
whole  power  is  confined  to  one  half  the  states,  whatever  their 
purposes  may  be.  They  will  not  sanction  retaliation  as  the  spirit 
in  which  wrongs  is  to  be  redressed ;  they  will  not  allow  wrongs 
committed  by  a  party  of  the  South  and  of  the  North  to  be  visited 
on  all  their  Southern  brethren,  nor  sanction  retaliation  as  a  fit 
political  remedy.  They  have  settled  the  policy,  that  if  wrong  has 
been  done,  reciprocal  wrong  is  not  redress.  They  have  put  the 
seal  of  their  condemnation  on  revenge  as  a  principle  of  legislation, 
and  have  refused  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  against  the  South 
for  wrong  legally  done,  and  requiring  the  remedy  to  be  pursued 


78  THE  PEESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

by  other  means  than  a  raid  against  Southern  institutions.  They 
think  that  the  evils  of  civil  war  are  greater  than  the  evils  of  an 
other  slave  Territory ;  and  the  policy  of  the  Eepublican  party, 
while  it  did  not  justify,  did  tend  to  kindle  civil  war.  They  have 
resolved  that  there  shall  be  no  attempt  to  grasp  the  reins  of  power 
on  principles  which  tend  to  exclude  every  Southern  gentleman 
from  office,  and  necessitate  a  decision  by  the  country  of  the  great 
question  whether  one  half  of  the  people  of  the  Union  will  be  gov 
erned  by  the  other  half — for  that  was  the  only  practical  result  of 
the  success  of  the  Eepublican  part}^  Honest  though  their  pur 
pose  may  have  been — as  devoted  to  the  Union  as  the  friends  of 
Mr.  Buchanan,  their  position  was  unsocial,  and  their  success  dan 
gerous. 

The  great  argument  at  the  South  has  been — and  there  is  no 
Democratic  gentleman  here  who  has  not  heard  it,  and  I  will  ven 
ture  to  say  there  are  very  few  who  have  not  used  it — the  argu 
ment  every  where  used  at  the  South  was,  that  it  was  a  question 
of  independence,  and  not  of  administration ;  that  it  was  a  question, 
not  whether  the  majority  should  rule  according  to  the  great  con 
stitutional  principle,  but  whether  a  majority  obtained  under  the 
forms  of  the  Constitution,  in  such  a  manner  as  practically  ex 
cluded  all  Southern  gentlemen  from  a  participation  in  the  con 
duct  of  affairs,  ought  to  be  submitted  to?  Not  that  there  were 
no  friends  of  Mr.  Fremont  to  fill  the  offices,  for  his  fifteen  hundred 
votes  would  pretty  well  answer  that  purpose ;  nor  that  there  was 
any  reason  which  peremptorily  forbade  any  one  from  accepting 
office,  though  inclined  so  to  do ;  nor  that,  in  point  of  fact,  it  was 
at  all  certain  that  there  could  not  be  found  men  enough  who 
would  fill  them — Northern  emigrants  would  fulfill  that  condition  ; 
but  because  the  condition  on  which  alone  any  party  can  fitty  and 
safely  be  intrusted  with  the  government  is  the  possession  of  pow 
er,  and  friends  enough  every  ichere  to  carry  on  the  government 
with  the  men  of  the  state  to  be  governed,  so  that  a  domestic 
government  shall  not  assume  the  form  of  a  foreign  domination. 
Instruments  of  any  power  may  always  every  where  be  found ; 
but  the  office  in  such  hands  partakes  of  the  nature  of  despotism, 
and  such  men  alone  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  Eepublican  party 
in  one  half  the  states  of  the  Union.  They  would  doubtless  have 
tendered  high  office  to  men  of  high  position  in  the  South,  but  the 
condition  precedent  of  conformity  of  political  views  and  princi- 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  79 

pies  was  wanting.  They  could  not  aid  in  forming  an  administra 
tion  to  whose  creation  and  whose  policy  they  were  radically  op 
posed.  Thus,  practically,  the  Kepublican  party  must  have  em 
ployed  Southern  men  who  represented  no  body  of  Southern  sup 
porters,  or  Northern  men,  to  conduct  the  government ;  and  that 
is  what  is  meant  by  a  purely  sectional  party — their  radical  and 
incurable  defect.  They,  by  the  simple  statement  of  their  position, 
confined  themselves  to  the  free  states.  Equal  candor  would  have 
equally  confined  the  Democratic  party  to  the  Southern  States ;  for 
the  objects  and  principles  of  the  Southern  Democrats  found,  so  far 
as  I  can  see,  no  supporters  in  the  North.  They  owe  their  little 
remaining  power  there  to  a  common  name  and  an  ambiguous  res 
olution  covering  a  radical  hostility  of  purpose  and  principle ;  but, 
honestly  or  not,  they  fulfilled  that  indispensable  condition  of  car 
rying  on  the  government,  that  in  most  of  the  Northern  States 
there  were  a  minority  content  to  vote  for  the  candidate  of  the 
coalition  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  Democrats,  and  to  be 
silent  about  their  differences — the  sole  distinction  between  the  sec 
tionalism  of  the  Democrat  and  the  sectionalism  of  the  Eepublican. 

The  great  lesson  is  taught  by  this  election  that  both  the  parties 
which  rested  their  hopes  on  sectional  hostility  stand  at  this  day 
condemned  by  the  great  majority  of  the  country  as  common  dis 
turbers  of  the  public  peace  of  the  country. 

The  Eepublican  party  was  a  hasty  levy,  en  masse,  of  the  North 
ern  people  to  repel  or  revenge  an  intrusion  by  Northern  votes 
alone.  With  its  occasion  it  must  pass  away.  The  gentlemen  of 
the  Eepublican  side  of  the  house  can  now  do  nothing.  They  can 
pass  no  law  excluding  slavery  from  Kansas  in  the  next  Congress, 
for  they  are  in  a  minority.  Within  two  years  Kansas  must  be  a 
state  of  the  Union.  She  will  be  admitted  with  or  without  slavery, 
as  her  people  prefer.  Beyond  Kansas  there  is  no  question  that  is 
practically  open.  I  speak  to  practical  men.  Slavery  does  not 
exist  in  any  other  Territory — it  is  excluded  by  law  from  several, 
and  not  likely  to  exist  any  where ;  and  the  Eepublican  party  has 
nothing  to  do,  and  can  do  nothing.  It  has  no  future.  Why 
cumbers  it  the  ground  ? 

Between  these  two  stand  the  firm  ranks  of  the  American  party, 
thinned  by  desertions,  but  still  unshaken.  To  them  the  eye  of 
the  country  turns  in  hope.  The  gentleman  from  Georgia  saluted 
the  Northern  Democrats  with  the  title  of  heroes — who  swam  vig- 


80  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

orously  down  the  current.  The  men  of  the  American  party 
faced,  in  each  section,  the  sectional  madness.  They  would  cry 
neither  free  nor  slave  Kansas,  but  proposed  a  safe  administration 
of  the  laws,  before  which,  every  right  would  find  protection. 
Their  voice  was  drowned  amid  the  din  of  factions.  The  men  of 
the  North  would  have  no  moderation,  and  they  have  paid  the 
penalty.  The  American  party  elected  a  majority  of  this  House; 
had  they  of  the  North,  held  fast  to  the  great  American  principle 
of  silence  on  the  negro  question,  and,  firmly  refusing  to  join  either 
agitation,  stood  by  the  American  candidate,  they  would  not  now 
be  writhing,  crushed  beneath  an  utter  overthrow.  If  they  would 
now  destroy  the  Democrats,  they  can  do  it  only  by  returning  to 
the  American  party.  By  it  alone  can  a  party  be  created  strong 
at  the  South  as  well  as  at  the  North.  To  it  alone  belongs  a  prin 
ciple  accepted  wherever  the  American  name  is  heard — the  same 
at  the  North  as  at  the  South,  on  the  Atlantic  or  the  Pacific  shore. 
It  alone  is  free  from  sectional  affiliations  at  either  end  of  the  Union 
which  would  cripple  it  at  the  other.  Its  principle  is  silence,  peace, 
and  compromise.  It  abides  by  the  existing  law.  It  allows  no 
agitation.  It  maintains  the  present  condition  of  affairs.  It  asks 
no  change  in  any  Territory,  and  it  will  countenance  no  agitation 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  either  section.  Though  thousands  fell 
off  in  the  clay  of  trial — allured  by  ambition  or  terrified  by  fear — 
at  the  North  and  at  the  South,  carried  away  by  the  torrent  of  fa 
naticism  in  one  part  of  the  Union,  or  driven  by  the  fierce  onset  of 
the  Democrats  in  another,  who  shook  Southern  institutions  by  the 
violence  of  their  attack,  and  half  waked  the  sleeping  negro  by 
painting  the  Eepublican  as  his  liberator,  still  a  million  of  men,  on 
the  great  day,  in  the  face  of  both  factions,  heroically  refused  to  bow 
the  knee  to  cither  Baal.  They  knew  the  necessities  of  the  times, 
and  they  set  the  example  of  sacrifice,  that  others  might  profit  by 
it.  They  now  stand  the  hope  of  the  nation,  around  whose  firm 
ranks  the  shattered  elements  of  the  great  majority  may  rally  and 
vindicate  the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule,  and  of  the  native  of 
the  land  to  make  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  recent  election  has  developed,  in  an  aggravated  form,  every 
evil  against  which  the  American  party  protested.  Again,  in  the 
war  of  domestic  parties,  Kepublican  and  Democrat  have  rivaled 
each  other  in  bidding  for  the  foreign  vote  to  turn  the  balance  of 
a  domestic  election.  Foreign  allies  have  decided  the  government 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  THE  LATE  ELECTION.  81 

of  the  country — men  naturalized  in  thousands  on  the  eve  of  the 
election — eagerly  struggled  for  by  competing  parties,  mad  with 
sectional  fury,  and  grasping  any  instrument  which  would  pros 
trate  their  opponents.  Again,  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  supremacy, 
men  have  forgotten  the  ban  which  the  republic  puts  on  the  intru 
sion  of  religious  influence  on  the  political  arena.  These  influ 
ences  have  brought  vast  multitudes  of  foreign-born  citizens  to  the 
polls  ignorant  of  American  interests,  without  American  feelings, 
influenced  by  foreign  sympathies,  to  vote  on  American  affairs; 
and  those  votes  have,  in  point  of  fact,  accomplished  the  present 
result. 

The  high  mission  of  the  American  party  is  to  restore  the  influ 
ence  of  the  interests  of  the  people  in  the  conduct  of  affairs — to  ex 
clude  appeals  to  foreign  birth  or  religious  feeling  as  elements  of 
power  in  politics ;  to  silence  the  voice  of  sectional  strife — not  ~by 
joining  either  section,  but  by  recalling  the  people  -from  a  profitless 
and  maddening  controversy  which  aids  no  interests,  and  shakes 
the  foundation  not  only  of  the  common  industry  of  the  people,  but 
of  the  republic  itself;  to  lay  a  storm  amid  whose  fury  no  voice 
can  be  heard  in  behalf  of  the  industrial  interests  of  the  country, 
no  eye  can  watch  and  guard  the  foreign  policy  of  the  government, 
till  our  ears  may  be  opened  by  the  crash  of  foreign  war  waged  for 
the  purposes  of  political  and  party  ambition,  in  the  name,  but  not 
by  the  authority  nor  for  the  interests,  of  the  American  people. 

Eeturn,  then,  Americans  of  the  North,  from  the  paths  of  error 
to  which  in  an  evil  hour,  fierce  passions  and  indignation  have 
seduced  you,  to  the  sound  position  of  the  American  party — silence 
on  the  slavery  agitation,  Leave  the  Territories  as  they  are — to 
the  operation  of  natural  causes.  Prevent  aggression  by  excluding 
from  power  the  aggressors,  and  there  will  be  no  more  wrong  to 
redress.  Awake  the  national  spirit  to  the  danger  and  degradation 
of  having  the  balance  of  power  held  by  foreigners.  Eecall  the 
warnings  of  Washington  against  foreign  influence — here  in  our 
midst — wielding  part  of  our  sovereignty ;  and  with  these  sound 
words  of  wisdom  let  us  recall  the  people  from  paths  of  strife  and 
error  to  guard  their  peace  and  power ;  and  when  once  the  mind 
of  the  people  is  turned  from  the  slavery  agitation,  that  party 
which  waked  the  agitation  will  cease  to  have  power  to  disturb 
the  peace  of  the  land. 

This  is  the  great  mission  of  the  American  party.  The  first 

F 


82  THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE  (1856). 

condition  of  success  is  to  prevent  the  administration  from  having 
a  majority  in  the  next  Congress ;  for,  with  that,  the  agitation  will 
be  resumed  for  very  different  objects.  The  Ostend  Manifesto  is 
full  of  warning ;  and  they  who  struggle  over  Kansas  may  wake 
and  find  themselves  in  the  midst  of  an  agitation  compared  to  which 
that  of  Kansas  was  a  summer's  sea ;  whose  instruments  will  be, 
not  words,  but  the  sword. 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FKAUDS. 

IN  November,  1857,  Mr.  Davis  was  elected  (for  the  second  time)  to  the 
Thirty-fifth  Congress.  Mr.  Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  was  chosen  Speaker, 
and  by  him  Mr.  Davis  was  again  named  on  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means.  He  was  heart]  during  that  session  on  the  Treasury-note  Bill, 
on  the  Pacific  Railroad  Bill,  on  the  bill  relating  to  the  reappointment  of 
officers  dropped  or  retired  by  the  Naval  Board  of  Inquiry,  and  who  had 
not  been  restored  by  the  Revising  Board,  and  on  the  Report  of  the  Kan 
sas  Conference  Committee.  In  that  debate  he  stated  correctly,  and 
proved,  from  the  records  and  from  the  argument  of  William  Pinckney, 
of  Maryland,  the  point  settled  by  the  Missouri  Compromise — to  wit, 
"  That  it  assumed  that  there  could  le  a  restriction  upon  a  Territory  while  it 
remained  a  Territory,  and  it  settled  that  there  could  be  no  restriction,  no 
condition  imposed  upon  a  state,  not  merely  upon  the  subject  of  slavery, 
but  upon  any  subject."  He  also  spoke  on  the  Ohio  Contested  Election 
Case,  the  Washington  City  Election  Bill,  and  on  the  Civil  and  Legislative 
Appropriations. 

On  the  30th  of  March,  1858,  he  spoke  as  follows  against  the  admis 
sion  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution  : 

MR.  CHAIRMAN, — The  earlier  explorers  in  high  northern  lati 
tudes  were  perplexed  at  beholding  great  icebergs  mysteriously 
making  their  way  to  the  north  against  current,  and  wind,  and  tide. 
Philosophers  in  the  closet  divined  from  the  strange  phenomenon 
the  existence  of  an  under  current  running  counter  to  that  of  the 
surface,  that  bore  them  along.  The  disinterested  spectator,  Mr. 
Chairman,  of  the  course  of  this  debate,  ignorant  of  our  history  for 
four  years,  and  of  who  now  holds  the  helm,  would  find  himself 
similarly  perplexed,  and  perhaps  he  might  surmise  a  similar  so 
lution. 

That  an  administration  which  professes  to  be  the  godfather  of 
"popular  sovereignty"  should  oppose  the  submission  of  a  Consti 
tution  to  the  popular  vote ;  that  an  administration  which  is  in 
name  Democratic  should  propose  to  impose  upon  the  majority 
the  will  of  the  minority;  that  an  administration  elevated  to  power 
by  the  South,  against  the  will  of  the  North,  should  urge,  as  the 


84  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

shortest  way  to  accomplish  the  great  purpose  of  making  Kansas 
a  free  state,  her  admission  as  a  slave  state ;  that  the  administration, 
which  professes  anxiety  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  country, 
should  say  that  the  shortest  way  to  restore  the  broken  peace  is, 
not  to  remove,  but  to  fasten,  by  irrevocable  laws,  in  the  form  of 
a  state  Constitution  guaranteed  by  the  united  power  of  the  country, 
that  hateful  oligarchy  upon  a  people,  whose  neck  was  too  tender 
to  bear  the  weight  of  their  territorial  yoke,  which  Congress  could 
at  any  moment  alleviate ;  that  these  methods  should  be  taken  to 
accomplish  these  purposes,  may  well  puzzle  the  speculator  in  ex 
ploring  the  hidden  reasons  that  drive  men  thus  contrary  to  what 
apparent  reason — the  ordinary  method  of  guiding  the  common 
wealth,  the  ordinary  propelling  powers  of  the  government — would 
seem  to  dictate.  And  possibly,  Mr.  Chairman,  he  might  not  be 
very  far  from  solving  the  problem  if  he  were  to  assume  that  the 
question  is,  not  so  much  how  to  accomplish  the  pacification  of 
Kansas,  or  to  make  legislation  square  with  the  dogma  of  "popular 
sovereignty"  or  to  secure  the  right  of  the  people  to  form  their  own 
domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  which  we  are  taught  to 
believe  is  a  new  revelation  of  the  year  of  grace  eighteen  hundred 
and  fifty-four — not  so  much  any  of  those  reasons  as  to  prevent  the 
administration,  which  boasted  itself  the  omnipotent  pacificator, 
from  being  brought  to  lick  the  dust,  now,  ere  the  termination  of 
the  first  session  of  its  first  Congress — to  lick  the  dust  before  the 
will  of  that  majority  which  it  is  defying  in  one  of  the  Territories — 
before  the  will  of  that  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
against  which  Mr.  Buchanan  ascended  the  presidential  chair,  and 
amid  the  irreconcilable  diversities  of  opinion  of  the  people  who 
were  combined  to  elevate  Mr.  Buchanan  to  the  Presidency — but 
here  that  men  and  parties  are  brought  face  to  face — can  no  longer 
coalesce  in  the  policy  he  would  have  them  pursue. 

We  are  debating  the  recognition  of  an  independent  state. 

The  administration  produce  a  piece  of  parchment  with  a  form 
of  government  written  on  it,  and  a  certificate  of  one  John  C.  Cal- 
houn,  that  it  is  the  Constitution  adopted  at  Lecompton  by  a  Con 
vention  of  the  people  of  Kansas  ;  and  on  this  evidence  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  friends  demand  the  recognition  of  the  State  of 
Kansas. 

We  respectfully  ask  for  the  proof  that  the  piece  of  parchment 
contains  the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas. 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  85 

We  are  told  the  Territorial  Legislature  took,  by  law,  the  sense 
of  the  people,  and  2670  voted  to  call  a  Convention ;  that  2200 
persons  voted,  in  all,  for  the  members  of  the  Convention ;  that  the 
Convention,  whose  journal  no  one  here  has  seen,  voted  the  Con 
stitution  ;  that  it  was  not  submitted  to  the  people  for  their  ratifi 
cation,  and  that  the  vote  of  the  4th  of  January,  of  10,000  against 
it,  is  of  no  legal  relevancy  to  the  question  before  us. 

On  this  state  of  facts,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  are  besought,  on  behalf 
of  the  administration,  to  vote  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  under 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  for  the  sake  of  the  principle  involved. 
Sir,  I  confess  myself  the  servant  of  principle ;  and  I  respectfully 
ask  gentlemen  what  principle  they  ask  me  to  sanction  ? 

Is  it  that  a  minority  in  a  Territory  constitute  the  people,  and  so 
must  make  their  will  the  law  over  the  majority  ?  If  so,  I  respect 
fully  dissent  from  the  principle. 

Is  it  that  the  people  of  a  Territory,  with  or  without  previous 
authority  of  Congress,  have  a  legal  right  themselves  to  take  the 
initiative,  and  to  lay  upon  your  table  a  Constitution  which  they 
are  entitled  to  demand  at  our  hands  that  we  shall  accept  ?  If  so, 
then  I  respectfully  dissent  from  the  principle. 

Is  it,  on  the  part  of  our  Southern  friends,  that  any  Constitution 
which  may  be  laid  upon  our  table  containing,  no  matter  how  put 
there,  a  clause  sanctioning  slavery,  is  to  shut  the  eye  to  every 
other  circumstance  connected  with  it,  and  to  drive  us  to  the  ad 
mission  of  that  people  as  a  state  merely  because  that  provision  is 
in  the  Constitution?  If  so,  then  I  respectfully  dissent  from  the 
principle. 

Is  it  that  they  mean  that  gentlemen  may  look  into  the  Consti 
tution  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  that  slavery  is  there,  and  when 
they  find  it  there  are  bound  to  vote  for  the  admission  ?  If  so, 
then  the  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of  the  house,  by  exactly 
the  same  reason,  may  look  into  that  Constitution  to  see  that  slavery 
is  there ;  and,  if  they  think  it  the  more  logical  conclusion,  may 
vote  to  refuse  admission  upon  that  ground.  But  as  I  do  not  un 
derstand  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  to  admit  the  latter  al 
ternative  as  one  fit  to  be  embraced,  they  will  indulge  me  in  the 
logical  consequence  of  not  regarding  the  former  as  a  proper  con 
sideration  to  weigh  at  all  with  me  upon  the  question  that  is  before 
the  House. 

That  slavery  is  embraced  in  that  Constitution,  is  certainly,  Mr. 


86          AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

Chairman,  in  my  opinion*  no  ground  at  all  for  the  rejection — no 
ground  at  all  for  any  difficulty  about  admission.  If  put  there  by 
the  will  of  the  people,  it  ought  not  to  weigh  with  the  weight  of 
the  dust  in  the  balance  upon  the  question  ;  for  to  allow  that  to 
be  a  ground  of  exclusion,  while  it  would  be  within  the  legislative 
discretion  of  Congress,  would  be,  in  my  judgment,  unwise,  tend 
ing  directly  to  consequences  that  all  of  us  are  most  anxious  to 
avoid,  and  would  exhibit  an  unsocial  disposition  in  behalf  of  the 
majority  which  might  come  to  such  a  conclusion,  which,  whether 
rightfully  or  wrongfully,  the  past  history  of  the  nation  teaches  us 
only  too  well  will  lead  to  nothing  but  disastrous  civil  collisions ; 
which,  in  their  result,  if  not  immediately,  will  first  undermine, 
and  then  bring  down  in  ruin,  the  whole  fabric  of  our  liberties. 

Then,  if  these  be  not  the  principles  which  ought  to  commend 
themselves  to  the  judgment  of  a  right-judging  man,  is  there  any 
other?  Is  it  that  because  the  Territory  has  proceeded  under  a 
law  of  a  Territorial  Legislature,  with  all  the  regularity  and  for 
mality,  as  the  President  tells  us,  that  any  territory  has  ever  pro 
ceeded,  we  are  bound  to  accept  what  they  send  to  us,  blindly  and 
without  looking  beyond  it  ?  Is  it  the  principle  of  this  govern 
ment  not  only  that  we  may  stop,  but  that  we  are  bound  to  stop,  at 
what  the  Territory  sends  to  us?  Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not 
assent  to  that  proposition ;  and  it  is  to  that  proposition  that  I  de 
sire  chiefly  to  draw  your  attention  now. 

Upon  that  question  I  am  freer  than  most  of  the  gentlemen  upon 
either  side  of  this  House.  I  voted  with  my  Southern  friends 
against  the  Topeka  Constitution,  being  a  free  Constitution  form 
ally  sent  here  by  the  majority  of  the  then  inhabitants  of  the 
Territory.  I  am,  therefore,  free  to  raise  the  question  whether 
there  is  legal  authority  at  the  bottom  of  that  Constitution  now 
presented  to  us  ?  They  protested  against  the  admission  of  Cali 
fornia  because  there  was  no  evidence  that  a  majority  of  its  people 
had  assented  ;  because  there  was  no  formality  of  law  preceding  its 
Constitution  ;  because  there  were  no  protections  to  the  ballot-box. 
I  am,  therefore,  now  free  to  ask  those  who  did  protest  to  join  me 
in  inquiring  whether  there  be  here  legal  authority ;  whether  here 
the  ballot-box  has  been  protected ;  whether  here  we  have  the  will 
of  the  people  ascertained  in  legal  form  which  we  not  only  may 
accept,  but  which  we  are  bound  to  accept  ? 

This  assumes  the  validity  of  the  laws  of  the  Territorial  Legis- 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  87 

lature  calling  the  Convention,  and  the  proceedings  under  them  in 
point  of  law ;  and  that  the  legal  effect  of  those  proceedings  is.  to 
clothe  this  parchment  with  all  the  attributes  of  a  state  Constitu 
tion,  and  that  we  are  not  entitled  to  inquire  who  voted  for  or 
against  it ;  how  many  staid  from  the  polls,  or  why  they  did  so ; 
nor  whether  fraud  or  force  have  decided  the  result ;  but  that  the 
legal  certificates  preclude  inquiry  into  every  thing  beyond. 

I  respectfully  deny  the  validity  in  point  of  law,  and  farther 
say  that  if  they  were  as  valid  as  if  authorized  by  act  of  Congress, 
they  could  to  no  extent  exclude  the  legislative  discretion  of  Con 
gress  as  to  the  fitness  of  recognizing  the  new  state. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  my  judgment,  all  that  is  necessary  to  the  ad 
mission  of  a  state  is  a  concurrence  of  the  will  of  the  people  of  a 
Territory  and  of  Congress.  Prior  to  such  concurrence  there  is  no 
state.  After  that  concurrence  there  is  a  state.  The  application 
of  a  Territory  to  be  admitted  as  a  State  is  only  a  petition  upon 
your  table — an  offer  upon  their  part  which  we  may  accept  or 
which  we  may  reject  at  our  pleasure.  After  that  concurrence  it 
has  been  ingrafted  into  the  living  body  politic  of  the  country, 
bone  of  our  bone,  flesh  of  our  flesh,  to  share  with  us  for  good  or 
evil,  to  the  end  of  time,  the  blessings  or  misfortunes  of  the  repub 
lic — to  be  severed  by  nothing  except  that  external  violence  which 
shall  lop  off  some  living  limb  of  the  republic,  or  tnat  civil  strife 
which  the  chief  of  the  republic  is  so  rashly  provoking. 

Enabling  acts,  whether  contained  in  the  organic  law  of  the 
Territory,  or  in  special  acts  authorizing  the  formation  of  a  Con 
stitution,  providing  for  the  formalities  of  election,  the  protection 
of  the  polls,  the  expression  of  the  popular  will  under  the  forms  of 
law,  are  only  the  guarantees  that  Congress  in  its  wisdom  throws 
around  the  expression  of  the  popular  will.  They  are  only  methods 
of  ascertaining  that  will ;  and  when  that  will  is  ascertained,  Con 
gress  has  every  thing  that  is  indispensable,  and  all  the  Territory 
can  supply.  The  will  of  Congress  to  concur  with  the  will  of  the 
people  is  expressed  in  the  act  of  Congress  admitting  the  state ; 
and  it  is  that  concurrence,  no  matter  how  ascertained,  by  what 
forms,  or  with  the  omission  of  what  forms,  which  makes  the  dis 
tinction,  and  alone  makes  the  distinction  between  a  Territory  of 
the  United  States  and  a  state  of  the  United  States. 

There  is  no  such  thing  in  our  system  as  an  incipient  state — a 
state  whose  federal  relations  are  undefined,  a  state  of  uncertain 


88          AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

federal  relations,  as  Mr.  Calhoun  once  expressed  himself.  I  re 
spectfully  submit  that  there  is  no  intermediate  condition  between 
a  Territory  and  a  state ;  that  a  state  whose  federal  relations  are 
undefined  is  a  state  of  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
knows  nothing.  Uncertain  federal  relations  are  no  federal  rela 
tions.  Unless  the  state  be  in  this  Union,  the  state  is  out  of  this 
Union.  Unless  the  state  be  bound  by  the  Constitution,  the  state 
is  independent  of  the  Constitution.  Unless  the  state  have  a  right 
to  be  here  represented,  the  state  has  no  right  to  be  represented 
any  where.  It  is  a  state  under  the  Constitution,  or  it  is  a  state 
independent.  If,  therefore,  any  proceeding  create  a  state  which 
does  not  simultaneously  bring  it  within,  and  make  it  one  of,  the 
United  States,  that  state  may  as  well  form  an  alliance  with  the 
incipient  confederacy  of  Canada  and  New  Brunswick  as  enter 
this  confederacy.  It  may  levy  war  against  the  United  States,  and 
you  can  not  punish  its  people  for  treason.  It  may  appropriate 
the  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  beyond  your  power. 
In  a  word,  by  the  public  law  of  the  United  States,  all  the  terri 
tory  within  their  jurisdiction  is  either  a  Territory  of  the  United 
States  or  a  state  of  this  Union. 

If,  then,  that  be  the  case,  we  are  brought  at  once  to  the  ques 
tion  of  the  relation  of  Congress  to  the  Territories  in  the  formation 
of  states.  What  are  the  respective  parts  belonging  to  the  people 
of  the  Territory  and  to  the  Congress  in  the  creation  of  a  new 
state  ? 

With  the  dogma  of  sovereignty  I  do  not  deal  here.  I  leave 
that  to  the  schools  or  to  the  gentlemen  who  meddle  with  meta 
physical  disquisitions.  What  sovereignty  is  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  define.  The  word  is  not  used  in  our  laws;  it  is  not  found 
among  the  wise  words  of  our  Constitution.  It  is  the  Will  of  the 
Wisp,  which  they  who  follow  will  find  a  treacherous  guide  through 
fens  and  bogs.  We  are  not  engaged  in  defining  that  "popular 
sovereignty"  with  which  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  have  been 
so  much  plagued  for  the  last  year  or  two.  Popular  sovereignty 
is  only  a  demagogue's  name  for  the  foundation  principle  of  all  our 
institutions.  It  is  only  a  demagogue's  name  for  the  right  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves — not  that  popular  sovereignty  which 
is  limited  by,  and  springs  from,  an  act  of  Congress — not  that  mush 
room  growth,  bred  in  the  hot-bed  of  political  corruption  as  a  dainty 
delicacy  for  the  people's  palate,  under  the  sedulous  care  of  my  hon- 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FKAUDS.  89 

orable  friends  opposite — which,  now  that  it  is  grown,  is  found  to 
be  nothing  but  toad-stools,  whereof  the  body  politic  is  now  sick — 
but  that  right  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves,  recognized  by 
the  fundamental  law  as  the  very  corner-stone  of  the  republic, 
which  in  this  case  the  President  violates  and  denies. 

I  here  this  day  would  deal  in  legal  language ;  and  in  legal  lan 
guage  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  people  of  the  United  States,  of 
which  the  people  of  a  Territory  form  the  subjects.  And  there  is 
known  in  the  law  of  the  United  States  such  a  thing  as  the  right 
of  the  people  of  a  state  to  form  their  own  government.  And  it 
is  assumed  that  every  state  which  can  form,  at  any  time,  a  part  of 
these  United  States,  shall  have  emanated  spontaneously  from  the 
people,  whose  affairs  it  regulates,  and  shall  have  been  received 
voluntarily  into  the  United  States  by  the  authority  of  Congress. 

Now,  sir,  what  is  the  relation  of  Congress  to  the  Territories  ? 
Have  the  Territories — I  do  not  say  any  natural  right,  for  I  am 
not  here  upon  a  philosophical  dissertation — have  they  any  legal 
right  to  initiate  proceedings  to  form  a  Constitution?  I  do  not 
ask  whether  they  may  not  come  here  and  ask,  by  petition,  Con 
gress  to  receive  them,  for  that  does  not  meet  the  difficulties  of 
the  case ;  but  I  ask  whether  the  people  of  any  Territory,  by  their 
simple  volition,  can  meet  in  Convention,  and  assume  to  themselves 
such  legal  powers  as  shall  compel  Congress  to  recognize  them  as 
a  legal  body.  Certainly  those  gentlemen  who  protested  against 
the  admission  of  California  because  there  had  been  no  preceding 
law  can  not  maintain  that  proposition.  Certainly  gentlemen  who 
voted  against  the  Topeka  Constitution  can  not  maintain  that  prop 
osition.  Certainly  the  gentlemen  who  signed  what  purported  to 
be  a  report  of  the  Committee  of  Investigation  of  this  House  can 
not  maintain  that  proposition.  Certainly  the  President,  who  de 
voted  a  great  part  of  his  message  to  demonstrate  that  it  is  only 
through  legal  channels,  by  legal  forms,  and  under  legal  authorities 
that  a  Constitution  could  be  formed,  can  not  maintain  that  propo 
sition. 

Neither  can  we,  in  point  of  sound  sense  and  reason,  maintain 
it,  because  that  assumes  there  is  a  power  in  the  people  of  some 
portions  of  the  Territory  not  derived  from  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States — since  the  Constitution  says  nothing  upon  the  sub 
ject,  except  that  Congress  may  admit  new  states.  And  if  they 
have  any  inherent  power,  by  the  same  reason  they  have  all  power; 


90  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FKAUDS. 

in  other  words,  we  are  upon  revolutionary  ground,  and  not  legal 
ground.  It  is  to  confound  a  right  by  law  under  the  Constitution 
with  the  natural  right  mentioned  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  of  people  to  alter  and  change  their  government  to  suit  them 
selves.  But  we  are  not  dealing  with  revolutionary,  but  with  legal 
rights.  We  live  and  were  born  under  the  Constitution,  and  to  us 
that  is  the  ultimate  criterion  of  legal  rights ;  it  is  our  embodiment 
of  natural  right  in  a  living  practical  form  of  government ;  beyond 
it  we  recognize  no  natural  right  as  a  source  of  legal  right,  and  he 
who  can  not  deduce  his  claim  of  right  under  it  has  none.  I  sub 
mit,  therefore,  that  by  the  law  of  the  United  States  the  people  of 
a  Territory  have  no  original  right  or  authority  to  form  a  state 
government.  No  public  man  of  position  and  character  of  any 
party  has  ever  ventured  to  maintain  such  a  proposition  distinctly. 
The  distinguished  head  of  the  State  Department  has  falle'n  into 
expressions  which  seem  to  imply  it ;  he  has  hastened  to  repel  the 
inference,  but,  in  his  haste,  has  involved  himself  and  his  opinions 
in  inexplicable  perplexity  and  mystification,  whence  nothing  can 
rescue  him. 

Then,  if  there  be  no  inherent  legal  right  in  the  people  of  a  Ter 
ritory  to  form  a  state  government,  how  is  it  to  be  accomplished  ? 
They  must  form  it ;  Congress  can  not  do  it  for  them ;  yet  Con 
gress  is  the  only  legal  authority,  the  only  source  of  law  for  the 
Territories.  Where,  then,  does  it  exist  ?  I  maintain  that,  so  far 
as  legal  authority  is  asserted  of,  or  essential  to,  any  proceeding  for 
a  Convention,  it  must  flow  from  Congress,  because  here  only  is 
any  government  over  the  Territories  in  the  eye  of  the  law  of  the 
United  States.  The  Supreme  Court,  which  even  State-rights  gen 
tlemen  nowadays  regard  as  the  ultimate  arbiter  upon  all  ques 
tions,  has  settled  some  other  things  besides  the  relation  of  slavery 
to  the  Territories,  and  among  them  it  has  settled  that  Congress 
alone  governs  the  Territories — whether  under  the  clause  which 
authorizes  them  to  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States,  or  under  some  unwritten  clause 
implied  by  the  strict  constructionists,  it  is  needless  here  to  inquire. 
It  can  flow  from  nowhere  else,  because  a  state,  in  the  view  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  means  a  body  of  people  within 
a  particular  Territory,  and  that  Territory  belongs  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States ;  and  the  people  who  live  upon  a  particular 
portion  of  that  Territory  have  no  right  to  assume  to  themselves, 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.          91 

without  our  assent,  any  portion  of  it.  A  state  involves  the  idea 
of  a  certain  population  inhabiting  and  possessing  a  certain  Terri 
tory ;  and  if  the  people  can  not  get  the  Territory  without  the  as 
sent  of  Congress,  they  can  not  make  themselves  a  State  without 
the  assent  of  Congress,  nor  take  any  steps  toward  it  essential  to 
its  existence,  which  can  exclude  the  control  of  Congress.  Con 
gress,  it  is  true,  can  not  make  a  Constitution  for  a  Territory.  It 
can  only  throw  around  the  people  of  a  Territory  a  legal  protec 
tion,  authorize  them  to  proceed,  and  give  thenvthe  guarantees  of 
law  in  their  proceedings ;  but  beyond  that  I  apprehend  Congress 
can  do  nothing,  and,  excepting  Congress,  nobody  can  do  that. 
What  I  wish  here  to  maintain  is,  that  that  is  the  fundamental 
principle  of  all  the  legislation  of  Congress  upon  that  subject.  All 
the  history  of  the  republic  is  in  its  favor ;  it  has  all  authority  in 
its  favor;  and  there  is  no  precedent  which  raises  even  a  doubt 
against  it. 

Now,  sir,  I  ask  the  attention  of  the  Committee  very  briefly  to 
the  law — for  I  rose  to-day  to  deal  with  the  legal  position  of  gen 
tlemen  on  the  other  side.  They  have  not  been  willing  to  enter 
the  controversy  with  their  opponents  on  the  question  of  fraud  in 
the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  or  whether  it  be  the  fair  and 
bonafide  expression  of  the  will  of  the  people.  They  have  insisted 
that  these  things  were  concealed  from  them  by  a  screen  of  legal 
technicalities,  and  it  is  to  tear  down  that  screen  that  I  now  ad 
dress  myself. 

In  the  absence,  therefore,  of  any  special  act  of  Congress,  author 
izing  a  Convention,  the  only  question  is  the  construction  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  of  1854.  Does  that  act  confer  on  the  Ter 
ritorial  Legislature  power  to  call  a  Convention  to  form  a  Consti 
tution  ? 

There  have  been  many  states  admitted  into  the  Union,  and 
under  diverse  circumstances,  but  much  the  greater  number  of 
them  have  been  admitted  under  the  express  and  precedent  au 
thority  of  laws  of  Congress.  And,  sir,  you  will  perceive  at  once 
—if  the  authority  can  only  come  from  Congress  to  take  the  initia 
tive  steps — that  it  is  immaterial  whether  that  authority  be  con 
tained  in  the  organic  act  or  in  a  special  act.  In  either  case  it  is 
our  authority  that  they  are  exercising.  In  every  instance  they 
are  our  agents.  In  every  instance  they  have  only  the  authority 
that  we  give  them.  And,  therefore,  it  comes  exactly  to  the  same 


92          AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

thing  whether  there  was  an  enabling  act  to  authorize  the  Terri 
tory  to  proceed  to  form  a  state  Constitution  and  government,  or 
whether  the  authority  was  given  under  its  organic  act.  This  can 
never  be  a  judicial  question;  but  it  is  settled  by  every  form  of 
political  authority.  The  states  of  Vermont,  Kentucky,  Maine, 
and  Texas  have  been  admitted  into  the  Union,  but  not,  as  has 
been  erroneously  stated,  without  precedent  legislation.  If  it 
were  so,  it  would  not  affect  the  argument,  for  they  were  never 
Territories  of  the  United  States.  But  the  assumption  is  histori 
cally  erroneous.  Vermont  went  through  the  Eevolution  without 
any  denned  relations  to  the  other  colonies,  claiming  independence 
at  the  time  of  the  Eevolution  under  no  colonial  government ;  and 
as  a  state  by  its  own  inherent  power,  it  acceded  to  and  adopted 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  exactly  as  the  other  states 
did.  It  is  no  case  of  the  formation  of  a  state  out  of  a  Territory 
of  the  United  States.  Texas  was  likewise  an  independent  repub 
lic,  acknowledged  by  the  United  States,  and  afterward  received 
into  the  Union.  Kentucky  proceeded  under  a  law  of  the  State 
of  Virginia,  whose  territory  it  then  was,  and  on  that  authority 
formed  its  Constitution,  and  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  Maine 
proceeded  under  the  authority  of  a  law  of  Massachusetts,  whose 
territory  it  was,  and  by  that  means  formed  its  state  government 
and  was  admitted  into  the  Union. 

But  the  argument  is  irrelevant ;  for  the  question  is  not  whether 
Congress  may  in  its  discretion  recognize  constitutions  formed  by 
the  people  witiiout  authority  of  law,  but  whether  a  Territorial 
Legislature  was  in  point  of  law  authority  to  legalize  the  election 
of  a  Convention,  to  give  the  Convention  itself  a  legal  existence,  to 
vest  it  with  legal  power  to  bind  not  merely  the  people,  but  the 
Congress.  No  one  denies  the  power  of  Congress  to  admit  Ten 
nessee  and  Florida,  yet  nobody  ever  asserted  any  legal  validity 
in  their  proceedings  before  admission. 

The  language  of  the  organic  acts  and  the  proceedings  of  Con 
gress  thereupon  are  decisive. 

The  Territories  divide  themselves  into  two  great  classes.  In 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Tennessee,  and  Michigan,  the  Legislatures  had  "power  to  make 
laws  in  all  cases  for  the  good  government  of  the  people  of  the  said 
Territory  not  repugnant  to  or  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States." 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  93 

In  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Oregon,  Florida,  Iowa,  the  power  of 
the  Legislatures  were  declared  to  extend — in  the  identical  words 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act — "to  all  rightful  subjects  of  legisla 
tion  not  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of  the  United 
States." 

Congress  has  construed  loth  forms  of  expression  by  passing  en 
abling  acts  for  both  classes.  Not  only  for  Ohio,  Louisiana,  Mis 
souri,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Illinois,  Indiana,  but  also  for  Wiscon 
sin,  Minnesota,  and  Oregon,  did  Congress  pass  acts  specially 
authorizing  them  to  call  a  Convention  and  form  a  state  govern 
ment;  and  in  every  instance,  excepting  Wisconsin,  these  bills 
provided  all  the  details  of  the  Convention,  the  number  of  delegates, 
its  time  of  assembling,  the  modes  under  which  the  delegates 
should  be  elected.  It  is  plain  Congress  thought  the  power  "  to 
make  laws  in  all  cases"  necessarily  extended  it  "  to  all  rightful  sub 
jects  of  legislation."  It  is  plain  Congress  thought  neither  form  of 
expression  authorized  the  temporary  Territorial  government  to 
create  a  Convention  to  form  a  Constitution  which  would  begin  to 
operate  only  after  the  Territorial  Legislature  itself  had  ceased. 
Its  power  to  govern  was  confined  to  the  Territory — a  temporary 
contrivance  for  a  temporary  purpose — involved  in  all  the  local 
interests  and  conflicts  of  Territorial  politics — and  not  safely  to  be 
intrusted  with  the  providing  for  a  Constitution.  In  a  word,  they 
were  authorized  to  make  laws  to  govern  the  Territory;  but  a 
law  for  a  Constitution  was  no  law  for  governing  a  Territory  at  all. 

The  case  is  stronger  under  the  Kansas  Act,  for  it  reserves  to 
Congress  the  power  to  make  two  or  more  states  or  Territories  out 
of  that  Territory ;  and  if  Congress  have  the  right  to  make  two 
states,  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  it  gave  the  Legislature  power  to 
make  one  state  of  it. 

But  there  are  cases  of  Territories  which  have  spontaneously 
petitioned  for  admission  under  Constitutions  framed  without  an 
enabling  act,  and  they  are  fruitful  of  authority. 

The  proceedings  for  the  admission  of  Arkansas,  Michigan,  and 
Iowa — where  there  were  no  acts  of  Congress  authorizing  Conven 
tions — are  decisive. 

The  law  admitting  Arkansas  declared  the  boundaries  of  the  state. 
That,  I  suppose,  establishes  the  fact  that  nobody  then  maintained 
that  there  was  any  authority  in  her  Constitution  prior  to  her  ad 
mission.  The  territorial  limits  of  a  state  are  essential  to  her 


94  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

existence ;  till  they  are  defined  there  can  be  no  state ;  after  there 
is  a  state,  Congress  can  not  determine  its  right  of  territory.  On 
the  Territory  depend  the  counties,  the  election  districts,  the  judi 
cial  divisions,  the  apportionments  of  representation,  the  very  peo 
ple  who  are  entitled  to  be  heard  on  the  adoption  of  the  Consti 
tution. 

If  the  Territorial  law  can  authorize  a  Convention  which  can 
adopt  a  Constitution  having  any  legal  force  prior  to  the  recogni 
tion  of  Congress,  it  must  have  the  right  to  define  and  appropriate 
the  territory  of  the  state  it  creates ;  and  if  it  have  not  this  power, 
it  can  not  create  a  state  in  the  eye  of  the  law  at  all;  for  Congress 
may  destroy  its  identity  by  taking  away  a  half,  or  two  thirds,  or 
all  its  territory,  and  give  it  to  another  state. 

Congress  recognized  the  State  of  Michigan  upon  the  condition 
that  her  people  should  accept  the  boundaries  Congress  prescribed ; 
and  on  their  acceptance  only  was  Michigan  admitted. 

Iowa  was  declared  to  be  admitted  as  a  state  in  1845,  under  her 
Constitution  of  1844,  Congress  declaring  her  boundaries,  and  re 
quiring  the  assent  of  her  people  to  them.  But  in  August,  1846, 
Congress  prescribed  by  law  other  boundaries  for  Iowa,  and  by  that 
law  recognized  the  validity  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Legislature 
of  the  Territory  of  Iowa  of  the  17th  of  January,  1846,  submitting 
the  boundary  between  the  Territory  and  Missouri  to  the  Supreme 
Court;  and  finally,  in  December,  1846,  Congress  declared  Iowa 
admitted  into  the  Union  under  a  Constitution  formed  in  May, 
1846,  and  with  the  boundaries  of  the  law  of  1846. 

The  case  of  Wisconsin  is  still  more  decisive.  The  Territorial 
legislative  power  extended  to  all  proper  subjects  of  legislation ; 
yet  Congress  passed  an  enabling  act,  and  it  defined  the  bounda 
ries  of  the  future  state,  on  the  6th  of  August,  1846.  The  people 
formed  a  Constitution  on  the  16th  of  December,  1846,  and  Con 
gress  admitted  the  state  on  condition  the  people  assented  to  other 
boundaries.  Instead  of  merely  assenting  to  the  boundaries,  they 
formed  a  new  Constitution  on  the  1st  of  February,  1848,  and  on 
their  application  were  admitted  as  a  state  with  the  boundaries  of 
the  enabling  act,  on  the  29th  of  May,  1848. 

These  cases  demonstrate  that,  whether  a  Constitution  be  formed 
by  the  people,  under  or  without  an  enabling  act,  the  Constitution 
has  no  force  of  law,  over  either  person  or  territory,  till  the  final  and 
complete  admission  of  the  state.  Till  her  senators  and  represent- 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  95 

atives  are  entitled  to  their  seats,  the  Territorial  authorities  con 
tinue,  the  organic  law  is  operative  and  supreme,  the  Territorial 
Legislature  retains  its  legislative  power,  Congress  can  absolutely 
dispose  of  the  Territory,  assign  its  limits,  and  exercise  its  discre 
tion  whether  to  admit  the  people  as  a  state  or  to  retain  them  as  they 
are.  In  a  word,  these  cases  display  the  great  fact  lost  sight  of  in 
this  controversy,  that,  till  actual  and  final  admission  as  a  state,  the 
Constitution  is  not  a  law;  it  is  merely  a, proposition  which  will  be 
come  operative  only  when  Congress  recognizes  the  existence  of 
the  state. 

With  reference  to  Michigan,  a  controversy  arose  in  the  Senate 
which  elicited  some  salutary  opinions.  We  have  first  of  all  the 
statement  of  his  excellency  the  President,  then  in  the  Senate. 
When  Michigan  was  applying  for  recognition,  the  exact  question 
arose  whether  there  was  a  legal  power  in  the  Territorial  Legisla 
ture  to  proceed,  their  powers  being  as  I  have  stated  them.  Mr. 
Buchanan  then  said : 

* '  We  have  pursued  this  course  [that  is,  to  disregard  informalities]  in  regard  to 
Tennessee,  to  Arkansas,  and  even  to  Michigan.  No  senator  will  pretend  that  their 
Territorial  Legislatures  had  any  right  whatever  to  pass  laws  enabling  the  people  to 
elect  delegates  to  a  Convention  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  state  Constitution.  It  was 
an  act  of  usurpation  on  their  part" 

This  was  said  in  the  hearing  of  the  whole  Senate,  that  no  sen 
ator  would  contend  that  they  had  legal  authority,  and  he  asserted 
that  it  was  an  act  of  usurpation !  And,  so  far  as  the  record  shows, 
no  man  rose  to  controvert  the  authority  of  this  distinguished 
expositor  of  Democratic  doctrines  of  that  day.  Well,  sir,  that 
covers  the  three  cases  of  proceedings  by  Territorial  Legislatures 
without  authority  from  Congress  by  special  act.  That  destroys 
the  whole  argument  which  has  been  attempted  to  be  founded 
upon  them.  With  reference  to  Arkansas,  I  am  protected  by  the 
authority  of  a  name  dear  to  the  party  which  he  founded.  The 
governor  of  that  Territory  applied  to  General  Jackson  to  know 
whether  the  Territorial  Legislature  had  any  authority  to  pass  an 
act  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  sense  of  the  people  on  the  sub 
ject  of  a  state  Constitution.  General  Jackson  took  the  opinion 
of  his  attorney  general,  Mr.  Butler,  and  the  opinion  of  that  distin 
guished  lawyer,  acquiesced  in  by  the  whole  administration,  was, 
that  there  was  no  legal  authority  in  the  Territorial  Legislature, 
but  that  it  was  beyond  their  temporary  functions ;  that  there  was 


96  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

no  authority  inherent  in  the  people,  but  that  they  were  subordi 
nate  to  the  power  of  Congress,  governed,  as  he  says,  under  that 
clause  of  the  Constitution  which  gives  Congress  power  to  make 
all  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  The  new  lights  had  not  risen  in  their  day.  And,  as  if 
no  authority  should  be  wanting  entitled  to  command  respect  with 
every  division  of  the  various  opinions  that  are  entertained  now 
in  this  House,  we  have  the  farther  authority  of  a  gentleman  from 
whom,  in  many  respects,  it  is  my  misfortune  to  have  differed  in 
political  opinion,  but  who,  in  my  judgment,  was  one  of  the  ablest 
gentlemen  that  ever  graced  the  councils  of  this  country — more 
conservative,  manly,  and  upright  in  his  views,  and  convictions, 
and  conduct,  than  almost  any  man  of  his  party ;  always  ready  to 
sacrifice  party  allegiance  upon  the  altar  of  truth ;  always  follow 
ing  the  dictates  of  an  independent  judgment,  as  well  in 'his  votes 
as  in  his  reasoning,  and,  for  that  reason,  justly  the  worshiped  idol 
of  the  great  Southern  section  of  this  country.  I  suppose  that  the 
strict  constructionist  gentlemen  of  this  House  will  not  accuse  me 
of  any  sympathy  for  dangerous  dogmas  from  Federal  quarters 
when  I  quote  the  authority  of  Mr.  Calhoun : 

"My  opinion  was,"  said  he,  "and  still  is,  that  the  movement  of  the  people  of 
Michigan  in  forming  for  themselves  a  state  Constitution,  without  waiting  for  the 
assent  of  Congress,  was  revolutionary — " 

What  does  the  incumbent  of  the  executive  chair  say  to  that 
now  ?     Why  were  not  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States 
directed,  instead  of  guarding  and  protecting  the  Lecompton  Con 
vention,  to  turn  them  out,  as  they  were  directed  to  turn  out  the 
Topeka  Convention,  equally  illegal  or  equally  legal  ? 
Mr.  Calhoun  proceeds  to  assign  the  reason : 
"As  it  threw  off  the  authority  of  the  United  States  over  the  Territory." 

That  he  regarded  as  necessarily  involved  in  the  very  idea  of 
their  assuming  to  themselves  to  take  the  first  step,  in  a  legal  form, 
toward  the  establishment  of  a  state  government. 

He  proceeds  to  say : 

"'And  that  we  were  left  at  liberty  to  treat  the  proceedings  as  revolutionary,  and 
to  remand  her  to  her  Territorial  condition." 

For  doing  which,  with  reference  to  Kansas,  we  are  now  threat 
ened  with  the  direst  consequences  by  the  gentlemen  who  then 
concurred  in  this  opinion  : 

"  Or  to  waive  the  irregularity." 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.          97 

Now  all  the  argument  of  our  friends  on  the  other  side  is  to. 
follow  the  regular  course,  and  break  down  the  irregular  course — 
only  they  have  'agreed  to  call  the  regular  course  that  which  Mr. 
Calhoun  called  the  irregular  course.  He  proceeds  to  say : 

"And  to  recognize  what  was  done  as  rightfully  done — as  our  authority  alone  teas 
concerned — my  impression  icas  that  the  former  was  the  proper  course ;  but  I  also 
thought  that  the  act  remanding  her  back  should  contain  our  assent  in  the  usual  man 
ner  for  her  to  form  a  Constitution,  and  thus  leave  her  free  to  become  a  state. 

And  so  a  distinguished  gentleman  in  another  place  [Mr.  Crit- 
tenden]  thought,  not  long  since,  and  possibly  there  are  some  here 
who  may  think  like  him. 

Well,  sir,  no  gentlemen  can  rise  here  and  cite  any  administra 
tion  that  has  ever  existed  in  this  republic,  down  to  the  beginning 
of  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration,  that  has  ever  so  flagrantly  vio 
lated  the  laws  of  the  republic  as  to  recognize  any  proceeding  of  a 
Territorial. Legislature  on  this  subject  as  having  authority  of  law. 
ISTo  man  can  name  any  high  officer  of  the  government  that  has 
ever  said  so,  as  no  man  can  show  any  vote  of  Congress  that  has 
ever  looked  to  such  a  recognition.  It  was,  sir,  the  first  blunder 
— to  be  followed  up  consecutively  and  logically  by  other  blun 
ders  in  law,  in  policy,  as  well  as  in  morals — that  this  administra 
tion  made  when  it  recognized  the  legal  authority  of  the  Lecompton 
Convention,  assembled  under  the  Legislature  of  Kansas.  It  was 
the  last  of  the  novelties  which  have  been  palmed  on  the  country 
as  sound  law,  to  break  the  fall  to  which  the  inventors  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  have  been  staggering  for  the  last  four  years. 

Sir,  it  was  new  in  this  administration.  No  member  of  either 
house  of  Congress,  at  the  last  Congress,  thought  that  there  was 
any  authority  in  the  act  of  1854  for  the  people  to  proceed,  or  for 
the  Territorial  Legislature  to  proceed.  That  law  reserved  to  Con 
gress  the  right  to  divide  the  Territory.  How,  then,  could  it  au 
thorize  the  people  of  that  Territory  to  form  themselves  into  one 
state?  Did  it  contemplate  that  the  wandering  rabble  that  was 
there  *when  that  law  was  passed  had  then  the  right  ?  And  if  they 
had  not  the  right,  pray  how  and  when  was  the  construction  of  the 
law  changed,  so  far  as  the  legal  meaning  is  concerned,  by  the  ac 
cession  of  population  ? 

Did  President  Pierce,  when  he  requested  Congress  to  settle  the 
difficulties  of  Kansas  by  passing  a  law  authorizing  them  to  form 
a  state  Constitution  when  they  should  have  ninety-three  thousand 

G 


98          AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

inhabitants,  think  the  people  of  Kansas  then  had  that  authority? 
Did  the  gentleman  [Mr.  Toombs]  who,  in  another  place,  during 
the  last  Congress,  moved  a  bill  authorizing  them,  when  they 
should  have  ninety-three  thousand  inhabitants,  to  form  a  Consti 
tution,  and  providing  all  the  detailed  organization  of  the  Conven 
tion,  think  that  without  that  law  they  had  the  authority  then? 
Did  this  House,  when  it  passed  Mr.  Dunn's  bill,  suppose  they 
were  doing  then  what  the  Territorial  Legislature  had  the  right 
already  to  do,  although  that  bill  postponed  the  exercise  of  the  au 
thority  it  conferred  until  their  population  had  reached  the  requi 
site  point?  If  they  did  not,  then  we  have  the  concurrent  opinions 
of  all  departments  of  the  government  during  the  last  administra 
tion — nay,  of  every  member  of  the  last  Congress  of  both  sides, 
Democratic  and  Eepublican,  as  well  as  of  all  previous  administra 
tions — of  the.  statute-book  speaking  for  itself  no  less  than  the 
reason  and  nature  of  the  proceeding  against  the  possibility  of  any 
legal  validity  being  imparted  to  the  Convention  and  its  proceed 
ings  by  virtue  of  the  Territorial  laws ;  and  those  things  of  them 
selves  ought  to  be  sufficient,  in  my  judgment,  to  settle  the  principle 
that  there  is  no  legal  authority  in  the  Territorial  Legislature  to  proceed 
in  the  matter. 

But  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  law  of  the  Legislature  of  Kan 
sas  itself  has  not  been  executed.  It  required  a  census  to  be  taken 
in  all  the  counties.  It  was  not  taken  in  half  of  them.  It  required 
the  appointment  of  delegates  to  be  made  after  the  census  was 
"completed"  and  "returned."  It  was  made  before  the  census 
was  more  than  half  taken.  The  law  contemplated  an  apportion 
ment  on  the  basis  of  a  completed  census  of  the  whole  Territory, 
and  of  course,  till  that  was  done,  there  was  no  authority  to  make 
any  apportionment.  The  causes  of  failure  are  immaterial  to  the 
legal  point,  but  they  are  certified  officially,  by  the  governor  and 
secretary,  to  have  been  the  neglect  of  the  local  officers,  and  not  the 
hostility  or  opposition  of  the  people.  It  required  the  apportion 
ment  to  be  made  by  the  governor  and  the  secretary  :  it  was  made 
by  the  secretary  alone,  who  was  acting  governor  at  the  time.  It 
required  counties  not  having  population  enough  for  a  delegate  to 
be  attached  to  some  district.  The  fourteen  counties  excluded 
from  the  census  were  not  attached  to  any  district;  they,  there 
fore,  had  neither  vote  nor  representation,  actual  or  constructive, 
in  the  Convention.  This  failure  to  execute  the  law  alone  is  fatal 
to  every  idea  of  lejial  validity  in  the  proceedings. 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  99 

If  there  was  no  legal  authority  in  the  Legislature,  then  I  sup 
pose  that  the  fabric  of  my  honorable  friends  on  the  other  side 
tumbles  about  their  ears.  What  becomes  of  the  argument  that 
we  can  not  look  behind  the  certificates  ?  Why,  the  certificates 
have  no  legal  authority.  What  becomes  of  the  argument  that 
these  people  who  staid  at  home  authorized  those  who  voted  to 
vote  for  them  ?  If  there  was  no  legal  election,  they  were  not 
bound  by  it.  If  there  was  no  law  requiring  them  to  attend,  stag 
ing  at  home  was  their  duty.  They  were  only  not  participating 
in  a  usurpation.  The  foundation  for  a  presumption  of  the  assent 
of  those  who  staid  at  home  is,  that  the  law  required  them  to  be 
at  the  polls.  The  good  old  law  of  Virginia,  as  my  honorable 
friend  in  my  eye  will  remember,  made  it  a  punishable  offense  to 
stay  away  from  an  election ;  and  though  there  may  be  no  law 
punishing  it,  yet  it  is  a  violation  of  law,  and  of  the  duty  of  the 
citizen,  to  stay  away  from  an  election.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  citi 
zen  to  cast  his  vote  ;  and  if  the  citizen  does  not  cast  it,  he  is  held 
to  authorize  those  who  do ;  but  that  can  not  be  where  the  pro 
ceeding  has  no  legal  validity — that  presumption  can  not  arise 
where  it  is  merely  a  voluntary  collection  of  a  portion  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  Territory  to  signify  their  willingness  to  admit  a  certain 
form  of  Constitution  without  their  having  any  authority  to  bind 
any  body  else.  I  suppose,  then,  that  in  that  point  of  view,  the 
whole  argument  upon  the  other  side  is  in  ruins.  All  their  bar 
riers  of  laws  and  certificates,  presumptions  against  fact,  and  ac- 
quiescences  extorted  from  protests  and  denials,  are  swept  away. 

We  are  at  liberty  to  see  that  only  two  thousand  six  hundred 
and  seventy  people  voted  on  calling  a  Convention  ;  that  only  two 
thousand  two  hundred  people  elected  the  Convention ;  that  the 
census  shows  only  nine  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  vot 
ers,  and  twenty-four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty  people 
in  the  Territory  which  has  transformed  itself  into  a  state.  And 
if  they  who  hitherto  insisted  on  confining  us  to  legal  returns  and 
certificates  now  suggest  the  imperfections  of  the  census  and  regis 
try,  I  agree  we  may  go  farther  and  see  that  there  may  be  twelve 
thousand  voters,  and  from  thirty-seven  thousand  to  forty-two 
thousand  people  in  the  Territory  ;  but  of  them  not  three  thousand 
voters  modestly  ask  the  powers  of  a  state  government  against  the 
votes  of  ten  thousand,  and  the  protest  of  seven  thousand.  Nay, 
sir,  emancipated  from  every  trammel,  we  are  at  liberty  and  bound 


100  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

to  go  farther,  and  to  inquire  whether  there  has  been  in  this  Ter 
ritory  such  fierce  collisions,  such  hostile  passions,  so  much  of  re 
bellion  against  the  regular  government,  such  an  absolute  division 
of  the  people  with  reference  to  their  government,  so  much  of  civil 
bloodshed,  so  much  of  military  control,  such  an  absence  of  the 
ordinary  political  virtues,  of  calmness,  of  consideration,  of  delibera 
tion  as  the  President  describes ;  whether  an  overwhelming  ma 
jority  of  the  people  are  opposed  to  the  thing  that  is  now  sought 
to  be  forced  or  foisted  upon  them  and  devoted  to  another  form  of 
government.  It  relieves  us  from  the  fear  of  encountering  the 
dangers  intimated  and  vaguely  hinted  at  by  gentlemen  upon  the 
other  side  in  the  event  of  our  venturing  to  do  our  duty.  It  leaves 
us  free  to  determine  whether,  under  all  these  circumstances,  it  is 
not  a  fair  case  for  legislative  discretion  to  pause  and  ask  the  peo 
ple  again  what  they  say,  upon  "  a  sober  second  thought,"  about 
it — to  see  whether  the  people  are  likely  to  submit  or  likely  to  re 
sist — whether  any  such  great  good  is  to  be  accomplished  by  now 
forcing  this  Constitution  upon  them  that  inevitable  civil  war  will 
be  compensated  by  it. 

We  are  told  by  the  President  that  this  is  the  shortest  way  to 
settle  the  agitation.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  confess  myself  astonished 
at  such  an  opinion  from  a  gentleman  who  has  seen  so  much  of 
public  service,  has  so  long  filled  distinguished  positions,  and  also 
knows,  or  ought  to  know,  so  much  of  human  nature.  Why,  what 
has  been  the  difficulty  in  that  unfortunate  Territory  ?  Was  it  not 
that  their  Territorial  Legislature  was  usurped?  Is  not  that  the 
reason  that,  from  the  foundation  of  the  Territory  to  last  October, 
the  people  refused  to  recognize  any  authority  under  the  laws 
emanating  from  that  Legislature  ?  Have  they  not  been  quieted 
only  by  the  earnest  efforts  and  warm  appeals,  backed  by  the  mili 
tary  power,  of  Governor  Walker?  Were  they  not  quieted  alone 
by  the  assurance  which  he  gave  them  that  they  should  have  an 
opportunity  of  expressing  their  opinion  on  the  law  which  was  to 
govern  them  ?  Did  they  not  join  in  the  October  election  because 
they  had  confidence  in  his  assurances  ?  Was  it  not  the  first  time 
that  the  people  of  that  Territory  had  ever  met,  face  to  face,  in  an 
American  manner,  at  the  common  ballot-box?  Was  it  not  the 
first  time  that  they  had  stood  in  any  other  attitude  except  that 
of  hostility,  with  arms  in  their  hands  and  hatred  in  their  hearts  ? 
And  are  we  to  be  told  by  the  President  that  the  way  to  pacify 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FKAUDS.  1Q1 

them  is  to  subject  them  permanently  to  the  hateful  domination 
of  the  handful  of  men  from  whose  hands  they  would  have  wrest 
ed  the  government — as  the  President  tells  us — but  for  the  United 
States  troops ;  that  the  whole  sanctity  and  authority  of  a  state 
government  shall  remove  them  from  all  the  power  of  Congress 
to  redress  their  grievances ;  that  they  shall  be  admitted  as  a  state, 
and  thereby  be  delivered  over  to  the  legal  authorities  under  the 
Constitution  which  they  protest  against,  which  Congress  can  not 
repeal,  and  will  be  bound  to  enforce  if  resisted  ?  for,  if  the  state 
be  admitted,  Congress  has  then  no  discretion  but  to  follow  the 
legal  line  of  authority,  and  to  put  down  every  thing  else  as  rebel 
lion.  But  has  not  the  President  learned  enough  from  the  expe 
rience  of  the  last  three  years  to  make  him  pause  ere  he  pushed 
the  country  upon  this  dangerous  experiment,  or  is  he  madly  bent 
on  a  party  triumph  at  the  risk  of  civil  war,  forced  on  people  of 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  as  the  only  alternative  to  a  tame  surrender  of 
their  right  of  self-government  ? 

The  President's  policy  is  high  treason  against  the  right  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves.  His  apology  for  his  conduct  is  in 
sulting  to  the  victims  of  his  usurpation. 

Is  it  true  that  the  dividing  line  is  between  those  who  are  loyal 
to  this  Territorial  government  and  those  who  endeavored  to  de 
stroy  it  by  force  and  usurpation  ?  Then  the  latter  have  been  no 
parties  to  the  proceedings  for  a  Convention,  yet  are  to  be  subject 
to  the  Constitution. 

Is  it  true  that  the  Territorial  government  would  long  since 
have  been  subverted  had  it  not  been  protected  from  their  assaults 
by  the  troops  of  the  United  States  ?  Then  the  stronger  part  of 
the  people  is  against  the  proceeding  for  a  Constitution,  and  it  is  to 
the  weaker  part  the  President  proposes  to  confide  the  powers  of 
state  government  over  the  stronger.  Is  not  this  to  deliver  the 
state  into  the  hands  of  its  enemies?  or  will  the  rebels  submit 
when  the  United  States  withdraw  its  troops  ?  or  are  they  to  guar 
antee  the  new  usurpation  ?  i 

Is  it  true  that  Secretary  Stanton  was  obliged  to  summon  the 
Legislature  as  the  only  means  whereby  the  election  of  the  21st  of 
December  could  be  conducted  without  collision  and  bloodshed? 
Then  why  was  Mr.  Stanton  dismissed  for  summoning  them  ?  Was 
it  in  furtherance  of  the  same  policy  which  then  refused  the  peo 
ple  an  opportunity  to  speak,  and,  now  that  they  have  spoken,  re- 


102  AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS. 

fuses  to  hear  them  ?  Or,  if  that  election  could  not  be  conducted 
without  collision  and  bloodshed  because  the  people  were  subject 
ed  to  an  authority  they  defied,  is  it  the  purpose  of  the  President 
to  insure  the  collision  and  bloodshed  Stan  ton  avoided  by  forcing 
on  them  a  government  which  they  have  protested  and  remon 
strated  against,  and  are  ready  to  defy  and  destroy  ?  Is  that  the 
readiest  method  of  settling  the  Kansas  question  ? 

Is  it  the  truth  that,  up  till  the  present  moment,  the  enemies  of 
the  enabling  government  adhere  to  their  Topeka  revolutionary 
Constitution  ?  Then  they  are  not  likely  to  receive  the  Lecompton 
Constitution. 

Is  the  reason  the  people  refused  to  vote  for  delegates  to  the 
Convention  that  they  have  ever  refused  to  sanction  or  recognize 
any  other  Constitution  than  that  of  Topeka  ?  Then  surely  they 
are  not  among  those  who  sanction  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 
It  is  not  by  their  will  it  is  put  over  them.  It  was  not  from  acqui 
escence  they  refrained  from  voting.  Their  silence  is  their  dissent; 
the  President  tells  us  so.  He  says  they  would  have  voted  against 
it  had  it  been  submitted.  Surely,  then,  silence  is  as  instructive  as 
their  voice. 

Sir,  in  my  judgment,  the  passage  of  this  law  is  a  declaration  of 
civil  war.  The  history  of  the  last  three  years  in  Kansas  leaves 
no  doubt  that  the  people  will  not  submit  to  this  Constitution.  It 
can  not  legally  be  changed  before  1864  I  think  it  a  fair  case  for 
disregarding  the  form  of  law  and  the  substance  of  law.  If  the 
constitutional  authorities  should  concur  in  the  change,  peace  may 
be  preserved.  I  trust  they  will  concur,  and  that  peace  will  be 
preserved.  But  if  they  do  resist  the  change  which  the  mass  of 
the  people  will  demand,  if  we  now  refuse  to  listen  to  their  protest, 
then,  in  my  judgment,  the  shortest  remedy  is  the  best. 

Free  government  is  a  farce  if  men  are  required  to  submit  to 
usurpation  such  as  has  here  been  perpetrated,  and  I  fear  the  peo 
ple  of  Kansas  are  not  in  a  mood  to  assist  at  the  farce.  They  will 
turn  it  into  tragedy.  Having  heretofore  resisted,  we  ought  to 
suppose  they  will  resist  again.  We  ought  to  act  wisely  and  care 
fully,  and,  if  we  have  discretion  now,  we  will  not  drive  this  people 
upon  revolutionary  courses.  Give  them  a  mode  of  relief,  and 
allow  them  to  follow  that  peaceful  course  which  they  are  inclined 
to  follow,  according  to  all  reports  from  that  Territory.  Give  them 
the  opportunity  of  expressing  their  will  as  to  the  law  under  which 


AGAINST  THE  LECOMPTON  FRAUDS.  103 

they  are  to  live ;  and,  having  expressed  their  will — whether  it  be 
for  slavery  or  against  slavery,  is,  in  my  judgment,  absolutely  im 
material — allow  them  to  come  in  at  a  proper  time,  with  a  proper 
population  and  with  reasonable  boundaries  and  a  rich  dower,  as 
one  of  the  sister  states  of  the  republic. 


REMARKS 

AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  EASTERN  FEMALE 
HIGH  SCHOOL  OF  BALTIMORE. 

DELIVERED  IN  BALTIMORE,  MD.,  NOV.  16,  1S53.* 

YOUNG  LADIES  OF  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS: 

WHEN  the  devotee  of  the  Ganges  would  seek  the  favor  of  her 
God,  at  eventide  she  commits  to  the  current  of  the  river  a  lighted 
lamp,  and  watches  with  beating  heart  its  course  and  its  fate.  If 
it  sinks  she  returns  sorrowing,  for  her  God  is  not  with  her ;  if  it 
floats  till  lost  in  the  distance  and  darkness,  she  returns  rejoicing, 
for  her  offering  is  accepted. 

You  are  those  lamps  which  the  people  of  Maryland  have  com 
mitted  to  the  stream  of  time,  their  offering  to  that  God  who  rules 
its  current,  to  test  his  favor  for  this  their  highest  sacrifice  before 
him.  If  you  shall  fail,  amid  the  temptations  or  the  trials  of  life 
stray  from  the  paths  of  truth  and  virtue,  their  offerings  will  stand 
condemned;  but  if,  so  long  as  life  shall  last,  your  lights  shall  shine 
on  your  fluctuating  voyage,  the  examples  of  virtue,  the  guide  of 
innocence,  the  illuminators  of  youth,  then  will  the  people  of  Mary 
land  know  that  their  sacrifice  was  well  pleasing  to  the  God  of 
nations. 

Before  him  they  offer  this  their  service  in  the  cause  of  morals, 
light,  and  religion ;  and  by  its  fruits  they  shall  divine  whether  it 
be  a  true  or  false  way  which  they  have  chosen  to  serve  him. 

To  your  conduct  is  committed  this  great  religious  service ;  at 
your  hands  will  the  future  demand  it. 

And  you,  FATHERS,  MOTHERS,  FRIENDS  of  these  maidens,  to 
whose  bosoms  the  state  now  restores  them,  how  do  you  receive 
them  ?  tarnished  or  purified  ?  dimmed  or  brightened  ?  For  these 
are  the  fruits  of  our  "infidel"  free-schools.  These  are  fruits  of 
that  smattering  education,  that  surface-culture,  that  varnish  over 
poor  material,  whose  only  tendency  is  to  beget  vanity,  to  engen- 

*  Mr.  Davis  was  invited  to  address  the  graduating  class  of  young  ladies  at  this 
Commencement. 


REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT,  ETC.       1Q5 

der  self-conceit,  to  turn  the  head  with  teaching  above  their  station, 
to  unfit  them  for  the  duties  of  the  matron,  and  consign  them  to 
the  life  of  the  butterfly  till  they  sink  soiled  into  corruption ! 
Then  let  the  system  be  judged  by  these  its  fruits. 

This  is  an  American  spectacle ;  the  image  of  the  national  gen 
ius  ;  the  handiwork  of  the  utilitarian  republic. 

Well,  let  England  glory  in  her  Crystal  Palace  and  its  industrial 
splendors.  Let  France  boast  the  camps  of  Boulogne  and  the  mir 
acles  of  her  Cherbourg:  we  of  this  republic  prefer  to  polish  these 
diamonds. 

They  are  from  our  mine.  We  first  discovered  that  gold  lies 
rather  in  the  plains  than  on  the  mountains.  We  first  explored 
the  levels  of  creation  for  nature's  richest  treasures.  We  first  dis 
covered  the  hidden  value  of  the  common  mind.  We  first  pro 
claimed  that  the  impartial  hand  of  the  Almighty  had  sown  his 
precious  pearls  of  reason  and  affection  in  every  vale  as  well  as  on 
the  hills,  as  he  did  his  dew,  it  may  be  in  darkness,  yet  awaiting 
only  the  rising  sun  to  reveal  each  blade  of  grass,  however  lowly, 
flashing  with  its  morning  offering  of  beauty.  We  first  saw  that 
the  beauty  was  all  there,  and  that,  though  the  sun  touched  the 
hills  first  and  the  vales  last,  he  touched  all  in  his  course ;  and  we 
are  now  displaying  to  the  world  the  treasure  we  have  found,  some 
deep  in  the  vales,  which  otherwise  would  never  have  been  known. 

And  what  say  you  for  the  culture — its  breadth,  its  depth,  its 
purity,  its  genuineness.  Is  it  likely  to  promote  the  cause  of 
knowledge,  of  patriotism,  of  domestic  virtue,  of  holy  religion  in 
life  and  works? 

If  you  have  followed  these  exercises  with  as  quick  an  ear,  as 
appreciating  a  mind,  as  lively  an  interest  as  I  have,  you  can  now 
answer  that  question.  The  tree  has  shown  its  blossoms  and  its 
fruits — are  the  former  only  beautiful,  and  the  latter  bitter? 

Surely  these  exercises  have  revealed  a  comprehensiveness  and 
a  thoroughness  of  instruction,  a  degree  of  attainment,  and  a  mod 
esty  of  bearing  seldom  combined.  They  who  have  traced  before 
us  here  this  evening,  with  steady  hand,  the  succession  of  "historic 
cities"  from  buried  Nineveh,  through  ruined  Athens  and  the  lone 
mother  of  dead  empires,  to  the  teeming  abodes  of  our  republican 
glory;  or,  treading  the  "starry  path  to  the  Temple  of  Truth," 
have  reviewed  the  great  results  of  Herschel  or  of  Franklin ;  or, 
alive  to  the  glories  of  mechanical  skill,  have  pointed  out  with  ac- 


106      REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

curacy  what  has  been  accomplished  by  their  countrymen's  enter 
prise  ;  or  have  touched  with  caustic  finger  the  enervating  follies 
of  the  day  with  equal  judgment  and  wit;  or  embodied  in  poetic 
numbers,  with  accuracy  and  ease,  at  once  poetic  thought  and 
graceful  pleasantry — are  no  smatterers  in  knowledge ;  and  any 
lady  in  the  land  may  well  be  proud  of  daughters  who  can  write 
their  native  tongue  with  simplicity  and  grace  characteristic  of  the 
compositions  we  have  heard ;  and  if  the  hand  of  the  master  may 
have  purified  them  from  occasional  errors,  the  tone  and  cadence 
of  the  recital,  the  enunciation  and  pronunciation  are  at  least  their 
own,  and  the  first  were  just  and  spirited,  and  as  to  the  latter,  if 
there  was  more  than  one  word  mispronounced,  my  ear  was  not 
quick  enough  to  catch  it. 

Not  only  were  Milton  and  Byron  aptly  quoted  by  some,  but 
the  tone  and  style  of  sentiment  pervading  the  productions  re 
vealed  the  influence  of  such  companionships. 

Nor  are  knowledge  and  intellectual  culture  all,  but  these,  the 
future  matrons  of  the  republic,  even  now  give  evidence  of  fitness 
for  their  high  mission  as  prophets  of  patriotic  inspiration  to  the 
young  men  of  the  land ;  for  who  did  not  hear  in  those  glowing 
words  on  the  "March  of  Mind"  the  tramp  of  patriotic  hosts  fired 
by  their  enthusiasm  in  defense  of  the  republic?  And  when,  with 
kindling  eye  and  earnest  voice,  she  devoted  to  execration  the  crav 
ens  who  should  allow  the  fabric  of  our  liberties  to  be  torn  asun 
der,  did  we  not  see  in  her  all  of  that  matron  who  bade  her  son, 
going  forth  to  battle,  return  with  his  shield  or  upon  it? 

Nor  did  the  sterner  virtues  exclude  the  womanly  virtues ;  for 
what  do  we  recognize  as  worthy  of  the  woman  in  every  station, 
from  motherly  tenderness  and  domestic  duties  up  to  their  source 
in  religious  inspiration  and  trust  in  God,  which  was  not  comprised 
in  that  touching  portraiture  of  "  The  True  Woman,"  which  fitly 
and  beautifully  closed  this  farewell  to  girlhood  ? 

That  outpouring  of  pious  feeling  expressed  in  words  what  the 
sacred  anthems  which  every  voice  joined  to  swell  had  sent  in 
music  to  the  skies. 

They  were  the  infidelity  inculcated  by  our  public  schools ! ! 

They  are  infidel,  because  the  clergy  are  excluded  from  incul 
cating  sectarian  dogmas,  just  as  our  republic  is  anarchy,  because 
kings  are  not  invited  to  teach  us  civil  obedience ! 

The  objection  comes  from  no  republican  lips.     It  reveals  a 


EASTERN  FEMALE  HIGH  SCHOOL  OF  BALTIMORE.    1Q7 

profound  ignorance  of  the  foundations  of  our  republic.  They 
who  utter  it  have  yet  many  a  fathom  deep  to  penetrate  ere  they 
sound  the  depth  of  the  American  principle  of  the  freedom  of 
thought,  the  freedom  of  religion,  the  right  of  every  citizen  to  un 
checked  freedom  in  forming  his  religious  opinions,  and  the  deep 
interest  of  the  state  in  securing  him  not  only  freedom,  but  the 
means  of  enlightened  judgment,  and  that  greater,  deeper,  and  ho 
lier  faith  in  the  sufficiency  of  every  enlightened  mind  to  read  for 
himself  in  the  Word  of  God  the  will  of  God,  whose  practice  is 
religion. 

We  of  America  have  our  own  peculiar  mode  of  cultivating  re 
ligion  as  well  as  of  guiding  the  state,  and  that  is  freedom. 

There  are  other  methods  which  older  nations  have  tried  and 
still  cling  to,  but  we  have  discarded  them ;  and  they  who  assail 
our  system  would  bring  us  back  to  those.  It  is  well  to  know 
what  they  are. 

There  is  one  which  assumes  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  over 
the  civil  power ;  asserts  the  right  of  the  Church  to  define  and  of 
the  state  to  enforce  the  true  faith;  prohibits  free  judgment,  or 
punishes  its  errors  as  crimes. 

This  was  the  law  of  old  Europe;  the  principle  has  never  been 
abandoned ;  the  perversity  of  modern  times  has  greatly  limited 
its  enforcement.  It  is  still  the  law  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Turkey. 

There  is  another  which  professes  toleration  for  all  opinions,  de 
clares  the  state  the  patron  of  all  the  sects  whose  ministers  it  pays 
and  controls  as  a  part  of  the  machinery  of  government,  and  seeks 
the  quiet  of  the  state  in  the  stagnation  of  opinion  and  the  heredi 
tary  descent  of  creeds. 

This  is  the  system  of  England  and  Prussia,  and,  since  the  Eev- 
olution,  of  France  and  Belgium.  It  is  the  boasted  system  of  tol 
eration. 

There  is  a  third  system  which  asserts  the  right  of  each  man  to 
absolute  freedom  in  belief  and  worship,  which  denies  to  the  state 
and  to  the  Church  all  power  to  coerce  in  matters  of  religion,  which 
declares  absolute  freedom  of  thought  the  only  security  for  religion. 

It  is  not  toleration,  for  that  implies  indulgence,  a  privilege  which 
may  be  regulated  or  revoked.  It  is  freedom  of  the  individual  in 
matters  of  religion. 

It  denies  to  the  state  all  power  over  it  except  the  necessary  right 
to  determine  the  limits  of  the  domain  of  conscience  and  the  state. 


108      REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

This  is  our  American  freedom  of  religion. 

It  proclaims  to  every  conscience  freedom  for"  its  worship,  but 
not  freedom  to  control  any  other  conscience,  nor  to  exclude  any 
other  conscience,  young  or  old,  from  seeking  in  its  own  way  its 
own  satisfaction.  It  does  not  recognize  in  the  parent  any  more 
than  in  the  state  any  right  to  coerce  the  convictions  of  the  child, 
to  exclude  it  from  the  light,  to  impair  its  freedom  in  matters  of 
religion.  On  the  contrary,  it  pledges  to  all  alike,  of  every  age, 
equal  freedom ;  offers  to  all  the  means  of  thought  and  education ; 
but  forces  none,  and  allows  none  to  be  forced,  either  into  dark 
ness  or  light. 

It  is  the  profound  idea  of  the  American  people,  which  those 
not  reared  under  its  influence  find  it  difficult  to  conceive.  It  is 
peculiar  to  this  people.  It  is  our  principle,  and  we  alone  profess 
it,  and  we  alone  practice  it ;  we  alone  have  staked  the  very  ex 
istence  of  the  government  on  its  truth.  "We  have  boldly  released 
religion  from  the  control  of  the  state,  and  the  state  from  the  con 
trol  of  the  Church,  and  the  people  from  the  control  of  the  clergy; 
declared  not  merely  the  right,  but  the  duty  of  all  men  to  worship 
God  according  to  their  own  conscience,  and  offered  to  every  hu 
man  being  the  freedom  and  the  means  of  so  doing,  with  a  firm 
conviction  that  God  has  conferred  on  every  mind  power  to  un 
derstand  his  duties  toward  Him  not  less  than  toward  his  neigh 
bor,  that  each  human  being  has  within  him  the  capacity  for  him 
self  to  learn  the  path  of  duty  from  that  book  which  God  gave  to 
be  the  guide  of  all  men,  and  not  merely  to  teach  the  clergy  to 
guide  them.  The  American  principle  is  not  neutrality  between 
religion  and  irreligion,  between  faith  and  infidelity.  It  is  not 
merely  abstinence  from  state  control  in  affairs  of  religion,  leaving 
the  people  to  the  power  and  control  of  the  clergy  or  of  the  Church. 
On  the  contrary,  the  American  people,  by  their  laws  and  Constitu 
tions,  every  where  avow  themselves  for  religion  and  against  irre 
ligion.  They  every  where  assert  the  freedom  of  each  conscience 
as  well  from  clerical  as  state  control,  the  capacity  of  each  man  for 
himself  to  determine  his  religious  condition,  and  they  deny  the 
right,  not  merely  of  the  state,  but  of  the  Church  or  the  clergy,  to 
dictate  his  belief  and  exact  conformity  to  their  rules. 

This  is  the  logical  consequence  of  the  freedom  of  speech  and 
of  the  press,  the  freedom  of  thought  and  religion  as  expressed  or 
implied  in  our  laws ;  and  it  is  illustrated  by  every  statute-book, 


EASTERN  FEMALE  HIGH  SCHOOL  OF  BALTIMORE.          1Q9 

and  by  every  Constitution  in  the  United  States,  not  merely  in  the 
freedom  they  assert,  but  in  the  bulwarks  they  every  where  throw 
up  for  its  protection  against  not  merely  the  power  of  the  state, 
but  the  undue  spiritual  influence  of  the  clergy  and  the  Church. 

Nor  do  the  American  people  content  themselves  with  barren 
declarations.  Every  where  the  public  schools  attest  their  efforts 
to  make  freedom  of  thought  and  religion  not  merely  the  right, 
but  the  habit  of  the  nation.  The  state  throws  open  the  field  of 
knowledge,  and  declares  the  right  of  every  one  freely  to  enter 
and  enjoy  its  fruits.  Strange  and  inconsistent  would  it  be  if, 
where  every  science  and  all  history  find  a  voice,  and  the  children 
are  to  be  trained  for  the  public  service,  the  Bible  alone  were  silent. 
The  common  fountain  of  every  creed,  in  either  version  a  fertile 
source  of  religious  life,  the  American  people  see  no  departure  from 
their  ideas  of  religious  freedom  in  opening  its  simple  text  in  the 
public  schools.  It  adds  no  sectarian  exposition ;  that  it  leaves  to 
the  discretion  of  the  parent.  It  listens  to  no  sectarian  complaint 
at  its  admission ;  for  it  is  asserting  the  right  of  the  child  to  the 
means  of  forming  its  own  judgment,  and  freedom  of  thought  is  a 
farce  without  knowledge. 

Do  any  maintain  that  ignorance  is  better  than  knowledge  with 
out  sectarian  teaching  ?  Then  the  American  people  think  other 
wise.  They  can  regard  no  such  protest  without  abandoning  the 
holy  cause  of  free  instruction,  without  surrendering  their  faith  in 
the  sufficiency  of  every  mind  to  learn  the  path  of  duty  in  the 
Word  of  God.  A  right  to  deprive  children  of  all  instruction  not 
sectarian  is  not  a  right  of  conscience  in  the  American  sense,  and 
they  who  first  declared  the  principle  may  well  be  allowed  to  con 
strue  and  apply  it.  As  well  elevate  absolute  ignorance  to  the 
dignity  of  a  religious  dogma,  and  in  its  name  call  on  the  state  to 
close  the  public  schools.  If  the  interests  of  any  sect  suffer  by 
free  investigation,  it  is  its  misfortune,  but  confers  no  right  to  keep 
men  in  ignorance ;  for  the  state  asserts  the  right  of  freedom  of 
thought  and  religion  against  all  who  impeach  it — as  a  right  of 
man  against  the  arrogant  usurpations  of  those  who  would  rule 
them. 

Far  from  admitting  the  right  of  any  one  to  object  to  free  in 
struction,  the  principle  of  freedom  is  asserted  in  opposition  to  that 
very  assumption.  It  is  to  elevate  to  the  dignity  of  a  religious 
right  the  very  power  over  the  human  mind  against  which  we 


HO      REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

protest,  and  which  drove  our  fathers  into  exile.  As  soon  suspend 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  that  some  sect  may  perform  the  religious 
"duty  of  coercing  its  members.  As  soon  fail  to  punish  those  who, 
in  the  name  of  spiritual  discipline,  imprison  a  citizen  of  the  re 
public,  or  devoutly  burn  a  witch  or  a  heretic.  If  the  state  yield 
the  freedom  of  instruction  to  one  sectarian  prejudice,  it  must  yield 
it  to  all ;  and  that  is  to  abandon  the  education  of  the  children  of 
the  state  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  sects  by  the  sects. 

Kay,  more,  it  is  an  abandonment  of  the  right  of  the  people  to 
freedom  of  thought,  of  opinion,  and  of  instruction ;  for  the  state 
yields  to  the  sectarian  only  because  he  denies  the  right  of  the 
state  to  teach  any  thing  he  disapproves.  It  is  a  confession  that 
there  is  something  which  the  people  have  no  right  to  know — at 
least  without  its  antidote.  Our  principle  is  the  right  of  each  in 
dividual  to  know  all  things,  to  prove  all  things,  and  to  hold  fast 
what  to  him  seems  good. 

If  nothing  can  be  taught  which  any  sect  would  rather  not  have 
taught,  narrow  indeed  would  be  the  field.  There  are  few  on 
whose  history  there  is  no  blot,  and  scarcely  one  which,  left  to 
itself,  would  not  tear  out  some  page  of  history,  expunge  some 
scientific  truth,  or  close  some  department  of  discovery.  How 
many  would  protest  against  geology,  because  they  fear  it  conflicts 
with  the  books  of  Moses  ?  One  sect  might  insist  that  Newton's 
system  of  the  heavens  be  excluded,  or  taught  merely  as  a  hypoth 
esis  and  not  as  a  truth,  because  they  think  the  Bible  teaches  that 
the  earth  is  stationary  and  the  sun  moves ;  or  others  exclaim 
against  a  book  on  moral  philosophy,  which  teaches  the  freedom 
of  the  will — in  conflict  with  their  views  of  predestination  taught 
in  the  Bible.  While  one  may  object  to  classic  authors,  because 
in  conflict  with  Christian  morals,  another  will  ostracize  half  of 
English  literature-  by  referring  to  the  Index  Expurgatorius  as  the 
criterion  of  the  lawful;  and  the  Atheist  may  join  the  chorus  of 
complaints  for  the  invasion  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  insist 
that  the  name  of  God  shall  be  suppressed,  or  taught  only  as  a 
myth. 

The  state  asserts  the  right  of  her  children  to  judge  of  all  these 
things  for  themselves— to  know  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest. 
It  teaches  no  dogmas,  to  be  received  on  authority  blindly,  but  it 
aspires  to  place  in  every  hand  the  means  of  judging  every  thing; 
and  while  it  will  enforce  or  teach  no  creed  or  worship,  it  wjll  rec- 


EASTERN  FEMALE  HIGH  SCHOOL  OF  BALTIMORE. 

ognize  no  right  in  any  one  to  exclude  any  department  of  knowl 
edge  from  the  teachings  of  the  public  schools.  The  people  re 
serve  to  themselves  the  sole  right  of  defining  the  limits  of  the 
domain  of  conscience  and  of  the  state,  to  be  determined  by  the 
common  conscience  of  mankind,  and  in  the  honest  purpose  of 
promoting  human  freedom. 

The  people  must  adhere  to  this  free  system  of  state  education, 
or  abandon  the  education  of  the  people  of  the  Church. 

All  history  can  not  show  the  mass  of  any  people  ever  educated 
by  any  Church.  Schools  have  been  frequently  recommended,  and 
sometimes  established  under  the  shadow  of  the  Church,  but  they 
have  never  gathered  within  them  the  mass  of  the  children  of  the 
people ;  they  have  been  partial,  exceptional,  inadequate — a  part 
of  the  Church  machinery,  and  never  dedicated  to  freedom  of 
thought ;  and  the  mass  of  every  people  remained  in  ignorance  till 
America  set  the  example  which  churchmen  now  carp  at. 

They  who  would  know  what  education  under  Church  auspices 
is  can  learn  it  in  Italy,  or  England,  or  Spain.  Let  them  who  are 
in  love  with  it  adopt  it.  For  ourselves,  we  glory  in  having  both 
proclaimed  the  principle  and  perfected  the  sj^stem  of  free  instruc 
tion. 

And  if,  the  purpose  being  the  same,  the  objection  be  varied, 
and  the  system  be  impeached  for  irreligion  because  no  creed  is 
taught,  then  the  American  people  reply  religion  is  one  thing  and 
creeds  are  another  thing.  The  republic  cherishes  religion  ;  it  has 
no  concern  with  sectarianism  but  to  see  that  it  does  no  mischief. 
It  remembers  it  rather  as  the  instigator  to  strife  than  to  love,  the 
cause  of  wars  and  bloodshed,  the  fruitful  source  of  heart-burnings 
and  alienation  among  fellow-citizens — the  opposite  in  all  things 
to  that  religion  which  is  pure,  and  peaceful,  and  gentle,  which  is 
the  inspiration  of  public  virtue  and  the  best  guardian  of  the  pub 
lic  peace ;  and  .thus  remembering  the  historic  character  of  relig 
ious  sects,  it  has  no  interest  in  promoting  either  at  the  expense  of 
the  other,  and  will  not  subsidize  universal  war  among  them  by 
recognizing  them  as  elements  in  the  adjustment  of  its  system  of 
public  schools. 

The  American  system  proceeds  on  the  assumption  of  the  ca 
pacity  of  each  man  and  each  woman  to  learn  the  will  of  God  from 
the  Word  of  God.  The  American  people  place  their  faith,  not  in 
teachers  of  religion,  or  in  speculative  or  traditional  creeds,  but  in 


112  REMAEKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

the  nature  of  man  and  the  good  inspiration  of  God.  They  spread 
the  Bible  before  the  youthful  mind,  and  when  it  is  read  they  close 
it ;  and  they  look  for  spiritual  nourishment  to  flow  as  freely  from 
it  to  the  open  mind,  as  the  milk  from  the  mother's  breast  to  the 
infant  that  clings  there.  They  think  that  the  sun  is  visible  with 
out  telescopes,  and  that  the  colored  glasses  of  sectarian  instructors 
may  impair  its  glory,  but  can  not  add  to  its  brightness  or  its 
warmth.  They  cherish  religion  such  as  it  blazes  from  the  heav 
ens,  such  as  it  is  reflected  from  the  Bible,  shining  into  the  heart 
of  man  from  either  source,  needing  no  creed  to  define  it,  allowing 
no  sectarian  anathema  to  limit  it — cheerfully  greeting  it  wherever 
the  life  exemplifies  the  spirit  of  the  Bible,  however  the  disciple 
may  stammer  in  the  recital  of  crabbed  catechisms  or  stumble  in 
the  darkness  of  theological  metaphysics.  And  while  the  Ameri 
can  people  profess  to  be  a  religious  people,  and  would  shrink  with 
horror  from  any  system  which  encouraged  irreligion,  yet  they  re 
member  that  their  republican  government  has  been  assailed  on 
the  same  ground.  They  feel  that  their  system  of  liberty  and  re 
ligion  must  flourish  or  fall  together ;  and  whether  they  now  flour 
ish  or  languish,  they  will  judge  only  by  the  fruits.  We  are  no 
wiser  than  the  apostles,  who  knew  that  their  religion  was  univers 
al,  because  they  saw  its  fruits  among  the  Gentiles  who  professed 
it.  We  do  the  like.  We  point  to  the  churches  that  every  where 
decorate  the  land — the  thousands  who  daily  crowd  them  for  hum 
ble  worship — to  the  spontaneous  and  free  reverence  for  things 
divine,  which  bows  every  head  and  bends  every  knee  before  the 
Supreme — to  the  perpetual  fountain  of  pious  teaching  which  flows 
from  the  mother's  lips — to  the  orderly  march  of  free  millions,  with 
no  guide  but  their  conscience  and  the  law,  in  peace  and  order — to 
the  overflowing  charities  which  every  where  attest  the  reality  of 
Christian  love — these  things  are  the  proofs  of  the  religion  which 
the  American  people  cherish ;  and  they  are  the  proofs  that  it  does 
flourish  and  not  languish.  We  think  these  better  tests  than  a 
theological  inquiry  as  to  how  many  believe  in  predestination,  or 
transubstantiation,  or  episcopal  succession. 

This  is  the  reply  of  the  American  people  to  those  who  impeach 
their  system  for  infidelity.  To  these  results  they  point  to  prove 
that  religion  flourishes  better  when  free  than  when  controlled — 
under  the  air  of  heaven  than  in  sectarian  hot-houses  or  under  the 
deadly  shadow  of  state  protection,  and  the  reply  is  decisive. 


EASTERN  FEMALE  HIGH  SCHOOL  OF  BALTIMORE.         H3 

They  respect  the  ministers  of  religion  of  every  sect — seek  will 
ingly  and  freely  their  spiritual  aids  and  consolations ;  but  they  do 
not  regard  them  as  either  the  sole  or  the  best  instructors  of  youth, 
whether  in  matters  of  religion  or  matters  of  science.  They  have 
a  firm  conviction  of  the  sufficiency  of  laymen  to  regulate  affairs 
of  education,  and  they  prefer  to  confine  the  minister  to  the  service 
of  the  altar.  They  think  the  less  their  children  are  taught  why 
they  turn  their  backs  on  each  other  when  they  pray  to  the  same 
God,  the  better  for  them. 

They  look  to  other  sources  of  religious  instruction  for  the  young, 
which  they  are  careful  to  provide. 

They  think  the  first  lispings  of  infant  piety  are  best  poured 
forth  at  the  mother's  knee ;  that  the  first  inspirations  of  spiritual 
truth  flow  best  from  the  mother's  lips ;  that  the  earliest  guides  in 
religious  conduct  are  the  living  examples  of  the  mother's  walk 
and  conversation,  aided  by  the  free  Sunday-schools  conducted  by 
the  people,  and  not  by  the  clergy.  They  think  that  the  best  in 
struction  for  a  religious  life  flows  directly  from  the  Bible,  which 
God  gave  to  guide  men,  and  which  He  therefore  supposed  them 
able  to  understand.  This  the  American  people  spread  before  the 
minds  of  the  young,  without  note  or  comment,  and  in  either  ver 
sion,  that  its  teachings,  instilled  in  earliest  youth,  may  influence 
the  life  and  conduct  long  ere  the  maturity  of  mind  tends  to  theo 
logical  speculations,  and  instruct  and  comfort  thousands  who  may 
never  comprehend  a  single  sectarian  theory. 

But  this  free  system  can  exist  only  where  cultivated  and  pious 
mothers  preside  over  the  family.  That  is  the  purpose  of  this  be 
neficent  institution  at  whose  celebration  we  have  been  this  even 
ing  assisting,  and  these  maidens  are  its  flowers,  woven  by  its  hands 
into  a  crown  worthy  of  the  brow  of  Eve. 

These  maidens  are  the  missionaries  of  the  state. 

Yes,  it  is  to  you,  future  mothers  of  the  republic,  that  its  destinies 
are  committed.  This  high  cultivation  has  been  bestowed  on  you, 
not  to  promote  vanity  or  frivolous  dissipation,  or  the  rivalries  of 
social  ambition,  but  to  make  you  the  lights  and  guides  of  the  next 
generation  in  the  paths  of  religious  and  civil  prudence.  You  are 
not  called  to  mingle  in  the  turmoil  of  public  life,  nor  to  assist  at 
the  wrangling  of  synods,  nor  to  flame  in  the  front  of  war,  but  you 
are  the  sent  to  outwatch  the  stars  for  the  safety  of  the  life  of  the 
republic,  the  virtue  and  truth,  the  patriotism  and  devotion,  the  re- 

H 


REMARKS  AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT,  ETC. 

ligion  and  morals  of  those  to  whom  the  destinies  of  the  republic 
are  committed — the  people  who  will  constitute  and  rule  it.  Your 
life  and  station  find  their  fittest  symbol  in  that  glorious  path 
which  spans  the  arch  of  night,  thick  sown  with  blazing  stars,  but 
more  beautiful  still  by  the  clouds  of  trembling  light  amid  which 
they  shine — the  blended  beams  of  innumerable  but  invisible  stars, 
deep  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  the  heavens  till  explored  by  the 
great  astronomers  of  modern  times.  It  is  not  yours  to  glitter  in 
the  eye  of  the  world  as  those  leaders  of  the  starry  host  which  first 
arrest  the  gazer's  eye,  or  guide  the  mariner  on  the  deep ;  but,  hid 
den  within  the  heaven  of  your  homes,  invisible  to  every  eye  but 
those  who  penetrate  there,  the  pathway  of  the  republic  will  glow 
with  your  light,  a  visible  halo  from  invisible  stars,  whose  glory  is 
not  to  be  s"een,  but  to  wrap  all  things  else  in  join  light. 

So,  when  in  after  ages  the  eye  of  the  world  shall  marvel  at  the 
dazzling  destinies  of  the  republic  culminating  in  splendor  and 
triumph,  let  them  be  taught  that  it  is  not  the  glory  of  industry, 
or  arts,  or  arms,  but  the  light  which  the  matrons  of  a  nation  shed 
around  its  path. 


THE  EEOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TKADE. 

THE  case  of  the  slave-trader  Wanderer  9  and  the  harangues  of  Messrs. 
Spratt,  of  South  Carolina,  Yancey,  Ruffin,  and  other  extremists  in  the 
South  in  favor  of  repealing  the  United  States  enactments  against  the 
slave-trade  ;  the  exhibition,  at  an  agricultural  fair  in  South  Carolina,  of 
an  "  imported  laborer  of  African  origin,"  to  whose  owner  was  awarded 
a  silver  prize ;  the  serious  discussions  as  to  the  necessities  of  the  South 
for  a  class  of  "  immigrants  from  Africa*'  suited  to  her  climate  and  pro 
ductions,  and  the  boldly-declared  doctrine  of  the  "divinity"  of  slavery, 
and  the  rightfulness  and  Christian  duty  of  its  extension  and  increase, 
had  begun  to  awaken  the  fears  of  even  the  least  thoughtful. 

In  August,  1859,  Mr.  Davis  wrote  for  a  daily  journal  the  following 
article  on  THE  REOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE. 

IT  is  time  that  the  insidious  advances  toward  this  nefarious  and 
unchristian  traffic  which  a  large  and  influential  party  are  making- 
should  attract  the  attention  of  Maryland.  Her  people  should  not 
be  taken  unawares,  as  they  were  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  under  the  same  false  pretexts.  The  preparation  of 
men's  minds  for  the  grand  end  has  already  begun,  either  con 
sciously  or  unconsciously. 

The  grand  and  humane  policy  of  Maryland — the  colonization 
scheme — is  insinuated  to  have  failed.  The  ideas  and  sentiments 
from  which  it  springs  are  said  to  have  been  shown  false.  Jour 
nals  talk  of  the  great  revulsion  of  public  opinion  among  the  lead 
ing  men  of  England  on  the  question  of  emancipation,  which  has 
no  existence  out  of  their  imaginations,  to  lend  respectability  to 
the  change  of  men's  opinions  of  the  honesty,  morality,  humanity, 
and  policy  of  the  slave-trade,  already  begun,  and  which  they  wish 
to  foster.  While  they  do  not  venture  to  recommend  the  reopen 
ing  of  it,  they  suggest  that  it  exists  now,  in  fact,  more  than  ever, 
though  we  are  deprived  of  its  benefits. 

That  the  fleets  of  England  and  the  United  States  do  not  pre 
vent  or  suppress,  but  aggravate  it.  That  interest  which  would 
be  equal  to  humanity  in  securing  good  treatment  to  the  candi 
dates  for  civilization  and  heaven,  is  now  expressed  by  terror,  and 


116  THE  REOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE. 

converted  into  cruelty  by  the  fear  of  capture,  the  ignominy  of 
exposure,  the  menace  of  punishment.  It  is  plausibly  argued  that 
the  removal  of  the  cruisers  would  remove  the  terrors  of  the  trader, 
and  the  captive,  no  longer  a  source  of  danger  to  the  thief,  would 
become  an  object  of  interest. 

Good  food,  water,  and  air,  all  the  delights  of  a  pleasure  voyage, 
would  obliterate  the  ill  renown  of  the  "middle  passage;"  and, 
after  a  charming  voyage  of  a  few  days  or  a  week,  the  neophytes 
of  Christianity  would  land  on  the  celestial  shores  of  the  New 
World  disenthralled  from  barbarism,  and,  under  the  training  of 
Christian  masters  and  ministers,  learn  at  once  the  way  to  cultivate 
cotton  and  the  Christian  life.  The  question  of  morals  is  passed 
in  silence.  These  ingenious  gentlemen  assume  the  existence  of 
the  trade,  and  their  philanthropic  purpose  is  to  ameliorate  the  con 
dition  of  the  slaves. 

In  aid  of  this  argumentation,  others  insist  strenuously  on  the 
entire  unfitness  of  the  negro  for  freedom ;  for  of  course,  if  he  is 
nowhere  fit  for  freedom,  he  must  be  slave  to  somebody,  and  if 
any  body's,  why  not  ours,  the  Southern  fire-eaters  will  in  due 
time  exclaim. 

Of  course,  this  view  is  expressed  with  great  moderation,  great 
candor,  great  independence — nay,  philosophically,  simply  as  an 
ethnological  question ;  or  piously,  as  an  attempt  to  purchase  the 
divine  counsels  touching  the  negro  race,  and  to  become  the  hum 
ble  instrument  of  His  will,  which,  of  course,  can  be  only  good ! 
His  will  is  learned,  not  in  the  Bible,  but  in  the  British  West 
Indies.  The  great  English  experiment  of  emancipation  is  loudly 
proclaimed  a  failure.  The  opinion  of  English  statesmen  is  said 
to  have  changed.  The  very  emancipationists  are  claimed  as  con 
verts  to  the  system  they  ignorantly  overthrew.  Statistics  are 
paraded  to  corroborate  the  proof  of  failure,  and  adjective  is  piled 
on  adjective  to  describe  how,  in  the  lowest  deep  of  slavery,  a  low 
er  deep  of  ignorance,  idleness,  worthlessness,  was  found  in  freedom 
by  the  English  experiment. 

If  the  writers  draw  no  conclusion,  every  reader  can  draw  it 
without  much  trouble.  It  is  an  ally  to  the  argument  of  the  uni 
versal  unfitness  of  the  negro  for  mere  personal  civil  freedom  any 
where ;  that  is,  the  mere  exercise  of  the  right  in  subordination  to 
the  laws  of  the  land  to  dispose  of  his  own  labor,  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  his  own  toil. 


THE  REOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE.        H7 

It  is  the  exact  course  of  reasoning  which  was  heard  in  the  late 
Slaveholder's  Convention  in  Baltimore.  The  resolutions  proposed 
to  be  adopted  by  the  extreme  men  of  that  Convention  were  mere 
ly  the  formal  expressions  of  the  above  reasoning,  yet  no  such  con 
clusions  are  hinted  at,  but  the  dissertations  usually  close  with 
some  general  and  edifying  remarks  about  the  inequality  of  the 
races,  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to  give  negroes  equal  privileges 
with  whites,  about  which  nobody  differs,  and  could  have  been  de 
duced  from  much  more  accurate  premises  than  those  employed. 
But  the  mind  of  the  reader  is  sent  far  beyond  the  conclusions  of 
the  writer. 

If  we  turn  our  eyes  southward,  we  shall  get  more  light  there. 
Men's  opinions  are  more  pronounced.  It  is  now  a  political  ques 
tion.  Large  masses  of  the  Democratic  party  openly  avow  them 
selves  in  favor  of  reopening  the  slave-trade,  and  greater  multi 
tudes  sympathize  with  them,  but  prefer  the  safer  course  of  insinu 
ation  and  circumvention.  They  assume  the  Southern  disguise 
which  cheated  the  country  into  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise.  They  suggest,  assert,  maintain  the  unconstitutionally 
of  the  laws  prohibiting  the  slave-trade.  They  do  it  under  divers 
pretexts,  but  all  end  in  one  point.  Some  merely  wish  the  laws 
repealed,  not  to  reopen  the  trade,  but  to  leave  it  to  the  several 
states  to  say  whether  they  will  allow  it,  just  as  Congress  was  to 
allow  each  Territory  to  decide  on  slavery  for  itself;  others  think 
the  laws  ought  to  be  repealed  because  the  penalty  of  death  is  too 
severe  to  be  enforced  against  the  innocent,  mild,  and  moral  cap 
tains  and  crews  of  the  slavers ;  while  others,  more  practical  and 
more  logical,  say,  if  the  laws  be  unconstitutional,  there  is  no  need 
of  a  repeal — they  are  nullities.  Juries,  grand  and  petit,  may  and 
must  disregard  them. 

The  courts  have  no  power  to  enforce  unconstitutional  laws — 
nay,  the  courts  are  not  even  to  decide  the  question  of  constitu 
tionality  ;  it  is  too  plain  for  question ;  each  juror  must  decide  for 
himself.  Grand  juries  must  refuse  to  find  indictments  for  slave- 
trading,  though  the  facts  be  admitted ;  petit  juries  must  acquit 
any  one  indicted  by  the  usurpation  of  a  grand  jury.  We  have 
seen  within  the  last  year  both  grand  and  petit  juries  in  Southern 
states  disregard  both  evidence,  and  law,  and  court,  and  refuse  to 
find  indictments,  or,  where  found,  acquit  the  prisoner  in  the  face 
of  uncontradicted  testimony  of  the  officers  of  the  navy  making  the 


118  THE  REOPENING  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE. 

arrest,  and  of  the  jail  full  of  stolen  negroes — for  the  laws  are  un 
constitutional.  The  latter  is  now  the  view  prevalent  among  the 
Democrats  of  the  South.  The  majority  in  some  states  are  openly 
and  avowedly  of  that  opinion.  In  other  states  the  minority  are 
loudly  in  favor  of  it,  and  the  majority  is  silent  and  sympathizing, 
but  restrained  by  prudence  until  after  1860.  In  some  states  it  is 
the  question  underlying  the  apparent  topics  in  contest,  as  in  Texas. 
Mr.  Stephens  more  than  insinuates  his  inclinations  toward  those 
views  in  his  late  speech.  In  Mississippi  most  of  her  public  men 
have  made  profession  of  their  faith.  The  question  is  upon  us,  Is 
it  the  great  Democratic  bait  to  catch  the  South  in  1860,  or  to  concen 
trate  the  South  for  an  act  of  rebellion  ?  The  repeal  of  the  laws  is 
the  legalization  of  the  slave-trade.  No  law  affirming  its  legality 
is  needed.  It  revives  by  the  simple  repeal,  under  the  law  of  na 
tions.  The  Democratic  party  is  now  ready  at  the  South  to  make 
the  issue — repeal  or  rebellion.  It  touches  their  honor,  they  say, 
as  they  said  the  Missouri  Compromise  touched  their  honor.  The 
laws  are  a  slur  on  their  institution  and  on  their  ancestors,  there 
fore  they  will  have  repeal  or  blood.  What  does  Maryland  say  ? 


THE  QUESTION   IN  THE   TEERITORIES. - 
UNION  OF  ALL  OPPOSED  TO  THE  DEMOC 
RACY. 

DURING  1859  Mr.  Davis  had  been  active  in  endeavoring  to  bring 
about  a  union  or  fusion  of  the  two  parties — the  Republican  in  the  North 
ern  and  Western,  and  the  American  and  Union  parties  in  the  Middle 
and  Southern  States — equally  opposed  to  the  continuance  in  power  of 
the  two  factions  which,  having  coalesced  under  the  name  of  Democratic, 
had,  in  consequence,  carried  the  election  of  1856,  and  now  claimed,  un 
der  the  usual  penalty,  to  be  allowed  to  carry  the  election  in  1860. 

In  various  letters  to  individuals  and  to  journals,  written  during  that 
year,  he  set  forth  his  views  as  to  the  necessity,  the  expediency,  and  the 
feasibility  of  such  a  union ;  and  he  was  unremitting  in  his  efforts  to 
bring  about  such  a  state  of  opinion  as  should  induce  those  parties  in  op 
position  to  agree  upon  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1860  upon  his 
past  record  and  position,  and  without  any  platform  or  declaration  as  to 
legislation  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  Territories.  He  was  in  favor  of  the 
nomination,  in  that  way,  of  Judge  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri ;  and  he 
afterward  endeavored  (in  1860,  at  Chicago)  to  induce  the  Republican 
party  to  offer  him  as  a  candidate  who  could  be  accepted  and  voted  for 
by  Southern  Whigs  and  the  opponents  of  Southern  pro-slavery  Democ 
racy. 

In  November,  1859,  Mr.  Davis  addressed  to  the  Editor  of  the  New 
York  Tribune  the  following  letter  upon  this  subject : 

SIR, — The  Republican  party  is  the  expression  of  the  Northern 
opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories. 

All  the  Territories  are  now  by  law,  and  in  fact,  free,  for  there 
are  slaves  in  none.  No  law  establishing  it  or  regulating  it  has 
been  passed  by  Congress,  nor  by  any  Territorial  Legislature  to 
which  Congress  has  delegated  the  power ;  and  the  act  of  New 
Mexico,  being  in  conflict  with  the  decree  of  Mexico  abolishing 
slavery,  is  for  that  reason  void. 

In  this  state  of  the  case,  your  Republicans  insist  on  declaring 
it  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  interdict  slavery  by  law  in 


120  THE  QUESTION  IN  THE  TERRITORIES. 

a  platform,  and  to  make  the  enactment  of  such  a  law  a  cardinal 
point  of  policy  in  the  canvass  of  1860. 

Others,  who  see  in  such  a  policy  an  end  of  every  hope  of  union 
with  the  Southern  opposition,  and  a  strong  improbability  of  unit 
ing  the  Northern  opposition  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
Indiana  for  the  election  of  a  President  in  1860,  think  that  the 
election  of  a  President  by  the  opposition,  holding  the  views  of 
Mr.  Clay  on  that  question,  and  in  character  above  the  necessity 
of  pledges  or  platforms,  insures  every  thing  that  is  necessary  to 
satisfy  reasonable  men  to  arrest  permanently  the  slave  propaganda. 

To  obtain  security  by  legislative  restriction,  the  Eepublicans 
must  elect  a  clear  majority  of  both  House  and  Senate,  and  the 
President,  and  hold  them  long  enough  to  change  the  Supreme 
Court.  The  Eepublicans  must  first  get  a  clear  majority  of  the 
whole  House  of  Eepresentatives.  Not  merely  an  opposition  ma 
jority  against  the  Democrats,  but  a  Republican  majority  against 
both  the  Northern  Democrats  and  the  whole  body  of  the  vote 
from  the  slaveholding  states;  and  that  Republican  majority  must 
be  more  radical  than  any  ever  seen  in  the  House  of  Eepresenta 
tives. 

They  must  also  have  a  like  majority  in  the  Senate,  where  the 
free  states  lose  their  numerical  advantage,  and  where  any  two  free 
states  in  Democratic  hands  prevent  the  possibility  of  success. 

They  must  at  the  same  time  have  the  President,  for  a  Demo 
cratic  President  would  veto  any  bill  excluding  slavery  from  the 
Territories. 

They  must,  after  all  those  unprecedented  conditions,  still,  in 
addition,  either  reorganize  the  Supreme  Court,  or  hold  all  that 
power  long  enough  to  change  it  by  appointments  not  Democratic. 
This  is  plainly  so ;  for,  as  now  constituted,  or  as  hereafter  filled 
by  any  Democrat,  any  law  of  Congress  restricting  slavery  will  be 
declared  void. 

This  can  not  be  avoided  by  districting  the  country  and  assign 
ing  to  the  free  states  a  number  of  judges  proportioned  to  their 
population,  for  any  Democratic  President  can  find  discarded  anti- 
Lecomptonites  enough  to  fill  the  bench  from  every  district  for  a 
full  generation. 

Neither  can  this  be  avoided  by  any  law,  for  the  appointment 
of  the  judges  must  remain  in  the  President's  hand,  according  to 
the  Constitution. 


UNION  OF  THOSE  OPPOSED  TO  THE  DEMOCRACY.         121 

But  if  such,  a  reorganization  were  attempted,  it  would  so  rouse 
or  frighten  the  timid  or  Conservative  men  as  almost  inevitably  to 
restore  the  Democrats  to  power. 

The  Eepublicans,  then,  to  restrict  slavery  by  law,  must  have 
every  department  of  the  government,  and  hold  them  long  enough 
to  reorganize  the  Supreme  Court,  and  still  hold  power  to  prevent 
the  work  being  undone. 

Such  majorities  they  have  not  now  even  in  the  House  of  Kep- 
resentatives.  The  Republicans  have  no  majority  at  all,  not  even 
with  the  eight  anti-Lecompton  men,  for  any  such  purpose.  In 
the  Senate  they  are  in  a  great  minority,  and  the  President  is 
against  them. 

Is  there  any  prospect  of  their  ever  within  this  generation  hold 
ing  such  power  under  the  condition  above  framed  ? 

No  prudent  man  can  say  there  is ;  and  if  not,  then  the  attempt 
to  adopt  a  restriction  law  is  wholly  futile.  No  matter  how  much 
men  may  wish  it,  the  thing  is,  humanly  speaking,  impossible. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  election  of  a  President  in  1860,  of 
itself,  silences  and  arrests  the  slave  propaganda,  if  he  be  elected 
by  a  combination  of  the  opposition  in  a  manner  so  free  as  to  in 
sure  a  permanent  union  of  the  Eepublican  and  American  voters 
in  the  Northern  and  Western  states. 

We  say  the  President  alone  is  sufficient,  and  without  him  every 
thing  else  is  perfectly  worthless. 

With  the  President  an  adverse  majority  in  Congress  is  worth 
less. 

The  President  appoints  the  Territorial  judges  and  removes 
them  at  his  pleasure,  as  well  as  the  United  States  attorneys,  and 
the  marshals  who  summon  the  juries,  and  the  governors  of  the 
Territories,  and  these  constitute  the  Territorial  governments  in 
fact 

The  President  appoints  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
between  now  and  the  end  of  next  term  a  majority  of  those  judges 
now  on  the  bench  must,  in  the  course  of  nature,  be  substituted  by 
others. 

The  Dred  Scott  case  is  a  Democratic  case,  decided  by  Demo 
cratic  judges,  resting  on  Democratic  party  political  views  of  the 
Constitution  and  laws,  and  inspired  by  Democratic  prejudices  and 
sentiments.  It  would  have  been  rendered  by  no  judge  whom 
either  Harrison,  or  Taylor,  or  Fillmore  would  have  appointed. 


122  THE  QUESTION  IN  THE  TERRITORIES. 

It  would  have  been  rendered  by  any  Democratic  judge  appointed 
by  any  Democratic  President  in  the  last  ten  years. 

Now  the  old  Whig  view  of  the  relation  of  slavery  to  the  Terri 
tories  was  this — that  it  existed  only  by  virtue  of  the  positive  law 
of  the  land  on  which  it  was  attempted  to  be  enforced.  So  that, 
if  forbidden  by  Congress,  or  if  neither  forbidden  nor  sanctioned 
by  Congress,  it  did  not  exist ;  and  if  Congress  has  no  power  over 
the  subject  at  all,  then  that  of  itself  made  all  the  Territories  nec 
essarily  and  forever  free,  till  they  both  became  states  and  adopted 
slavery. 

Now  suppose  such  a  man  as  all  the  opposition  could  unite  on 
— a  man  holding  Mr.  Clay's  views,  and  honest  enough  to  trust 
without  the  distracting  pledge  of  a  platform. 

He  will  name  judges  for  the  Territories  holding  like  constitu 
tional  views  with  himself. 

Mr.  Clay,  e.  g.,  thought  the  Mexican  laws  excluded  slavery,  and 
a  judge  so  thinking  would  declare  the  law  of  New  Mexico,  or  any 
other  establishing  or  so  regulating  slavery,  void. 

The  United  States  attorneys  and  marshals  would  be  instructed 
to  institute  no  prosecutions,  and  to  enforce  no  laws  of  that  char 
acter. 

In  civil  suits  a  master  would  have  no  remedy  against  his  slave, 
for  he  could  institute  no  suit  against  him.  The  marshal  and  his 
force  would  not  lend  the  public  force  to  secure  his  authority  over 
a  slave  voluntarily  carried  into  the  Territory.  9 

No  indictment  would  be  preferred  for  any  rescue  of  such  a 
slave ;  and  if  the  negro  were  not  interfered  with  by  the  people,  it 
would  be  merely  a  question  between  the  claimant's  power  to  guard 
and  his  power  to  go  off. 

If  a  civil  suit  for  a  rescue  were  instituted,  a  judgment  might  be 
brought  to  the  Supreme  Court. 

In  such  a  case,  the  Supreme  Court,  as  now  constituted,  or  as 
constituted  by  any  Democrat,  will  decide  for  the  master ;  but  as 
constituted  by  any  President  elected  by  the  opposition,  the  deci 
sion  would  necessarily  be  against  him. 

Three  new  appointments  will  change  the  complexion  of  the 
court.  There  are  more  than  three  very  old  men  whose  places 
must  be  filled  by  the  next  administration,  and  that  will  determine 
the  complexion  of  the  court  for  the  next  generation,  in  all  proba 
bility,  if  made  by  a  Democrat. 


UNION  OF  THOSE  OPPOSED  TO  THE  DEMOCRACY.          123 

Now,  to  accomplish  a  rehearsal  of  the  Dred  Scott  folly  no  pledge 
is  needed,  no  platform,  nothing  but  a  President  holding  Mr.  Clay's 
views.  Judges  appointed  by  such  a  President  will  instantly  re 
pudiate  that  ridiculous  farago  of  bad  history,  worse  law,  and  Dem 
ocratic  partisanship. 

The  decision  was  made  only  because  the  people  had  been  quar 
reling  for  twenty  years,  and  the  Democrats  had  been  allowed  to 
hold  the  President  because  the  people  could  not  agree  to  turn 
them  out  of  the  presidency,  and,  like  the  Democrats,  quarrel  about 
matters  of  policy  while  sheltered  against  disaster  by  the  power  of 
the  President. 

"We  repeat  that,  without  the  President,  every  thing  else  is 
worthless ;  with  the  President,  every  thing  else  follows ;  for  the 
President  gives  all  the  offices  at  home  and  abroad ;  thus  his  will 
inspires  every  act  of  the  government,  even  the  very  courts,  on  po 
litical  and  constitutional  subjects. 

A  majority  in  Congress  with  him  consecrates  his  will  and  that 
of  those  who  elect  him  as  law,  and  he  executes  and  construes  it  in 
the  spirit  of  its  authors. 

His  veto  protects  his  policy  against  an  adverse  majority  in  both 
houses,  and  gives  his  friends  time  to  rally  and  restore  their  ma 
jority  in  the  next  Congress. 

He  is  omnipotent  against  every  thing  but  a  two-third's  vote  of 
both  houses,  so  that  his  administration  may  be  censured,  but  can 
not  be  arrested  by  any  less  number  ly  law. 

The  possession  of  the  President,  except  under  great  abuse  of 
power,  draws  to  it  generally  the  majorities  of  both  houses,  from 
the  natural  tendency  of  the  people  to  make  a  complete  govern 
ment  while  they  are  about  it. 

But,  with  the  President  alone  in  such  hands  as  we  have  indi 
cated,  the  slave  propaganda  is  forever  broken  down. 

It  can  pass  no  slave  co'de  for  its  Territories. 

It  can  not  repeal  the  laws  against  the  slave-trade.  It  can  not 
repeat  the  scenes  of  Kansas,  for  President  Pierce  could  at  any 
moment  have  ended  those  invasions  and  those  frauds  by  the  ap 
pointment  of  his  marshals  and  governors,  or,  if  necessary,  by  the 
troops. 

Thus  paralyzed,  the  black  Democrats  could  not  agitate  the 
country;  the  progress  of  population  would  settle  the  condition  of 
the  Territories  for  their  transformation  into  states  without  any 
farther  legislation. 


124:  THE  QUESTION  IN  THE  TERRITORIES. 

On  these  principles  the  opposition  can  unite,  for  they  are  sim 
ply  a  cessation  of  the  propaganda.  They  only  assume  that  who 
ever  the  opposition  may  agree  on  will  be  one  holding  Mr.  Clay's 
views,  and  known  to  do  so,  without  any  pledges  or  questions. 
Such  a  person  only  can  unite  the  opposition. 

Such  an  administration  inaugurated  in  1860  gives  the  Con 
servative  body  of  the  people — now  unhappily  divided  on  the  is 
sue,  shown  above  not  to  be  material,  i.  e.,  not  necessary  to  be 
raised  in  order  to  accomplish  all  which  moderate  men  ought  to 
want,  and  do  want — the  possession  of  the  government  for  a  gen 
eration  at  least,  if  wisely  conducted. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  opposition  fail  in  1860,  they  may  roll 
up  the  map  of  the  United  States  for  twenty  years. 


ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE  BY  THE 
MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE  ON  ACCOUNT 
OF  MR.  DAVIS'S  VOTE  FOR  MR.  SPEAKER 
PENNINGTON. 

AT  the  second  session  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress  (December,  1858, 
to  March  4,  1859)  Mr.  Davis  spoke  against  the  proposed  resolution  to 
impeach  Judge  Watrous,  of  Texas  (which  was  rejected),  and  on  the  bills 
for  the  Indian,  Civil,  and  Naval  Appropriations. 

In  the  month  of  October,  1859,  occurred  the  outbreak  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  attack  on  and  capture  of  the  United  States  Arsenal  there  by 
John  Brown  and  his  associates,  who  attempted  also  to  cause  and  lead  an 
insurrection  of  the  negro  slaves.  The  excitement  caused  by  this  invasion 
of  Virginia  by  twenty  men  was  only  less  in  certain  parts  of  Maryland 
than  the  terror  it  occasioned  in  the  state  first  named.  It  was  instantly 
asserted  every  where  as  the  deliberate  act  of  a  great  political  party  in 
the  North,  and  for  which  they  were  responsible,  and  was  held  forth  as 
the  convincing  reason  why  the  only  safety  of  the  South  was  in  the  party 
whose  excesses  had  provoked  it. 

Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  missionaries  who  preached  this  new 
doctrine  in  Maryland,  Mr.  Davis  was  again  elected,  for  the  third  time,  in 
November,  1859,  to  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  which  met  on  the  5th  of 
December.  There  were  returned  to  the  House  one  hundred  and  nine 
Republicans,  one  hundred  and  one  Democrats,  twenty-six  Americans, 
and  one  Whig  (Mr.  Etheridge,  of  Tennessee). 

For  the  speakership,  at  first  Mr.  Bocock  was  supported  by  the  Demo 
crats,  Mr.  Sherman  by  the  Republicans,  and  Mr.  Gilmer  and  Mr.  Boteler 
by  the  Americans.  A  resolution  was  introduced  by  the  Democrats,  in 
hopes  of  compelling  the  Americans  to  side  with  them,  that  "  no  indorser 
or  advocate  of  the  '  Helper  Book'  (The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South, 
by  H.  R.  Helper,  of  North  Carolina)  was  proper  to  be  placed  in  the  chair 
of  the  House."  This  was  aimed  against  Mr.  Sherman,  whose  name  ap 
peared  in  a  list  of  those  who  recommended  the  distribution  and  reading 
of  that  volume.  The  discussion  was  long  and  violent,  and  after  many 
ineffectual  efforts,  and  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Sherman  and  others,  on 
the  31st  of  January,  1860,  Mr.  Davis,  when  his  name  was  called,  voted 
for  Governor  Pennington,  a  member  from  New  Jersey.  Governor  Pen- 
nington  was  a  Whig,  who  had  been  elected  as  a  Republican,  and  who 


126         ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

had  been  supported  as  their  candidate  for  the  speakership  by  the  Repub 
licans  only  when  they  found  it  impossible  to  elect  one  of  their  straitest 
sect,  and  "an  indorser  or  advocate  of  the  '  Helper  Book.'"  This  vote 
gave  to  Mr.  Pennington  one  hundred  and  sixteen  votes,  within  one  of  the 
required  number.  This  was  secured  next  day,  February  1,  by  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Briggs,  and  thereupon  Mr.  Pennington  was  conducted  to  the  chair. 

There  was  a  furious  clamor  raised  in  the  Legislature  of  Maryland,  then 
in  session  at  Annapolis,  and  attempted  to  be  raised  among  the  people  of 
the  state,  and  of  the  city  of  Baltimore  especially,  upon  the  announcement 
of  the  vote  cast  by  Mr.  Davis  for  Mr.  Pennington. 

The  most  abusive  articles  were  printed  in  the  daily  papers  of  Balti 
more  ;  insulting  and  threatening  anonymous  letters  were  sent  to  Mr. 
Davis,  and  violent  efforts  made  to  hold  him  up  as  "  a  traitor  to  the  South, 
and  renegade  to  the  political,  commercial,  and  social  interests  of  Balti 
more." 

In  the  Maryland  Legislature  enough  members  were  found  of  the  party 
which  had  sent  Mr.  Davis  to  Congress,  and  who  had  been  elected  from 
their  own  counties  partly  through  his  efforts,  to  join  with  the  pro-slav 
ery  Democracy  in  denouncing  this  vote,  by  resolutions  declaring  that  he 
had  therein  misrepresented  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  the  state. 

After  these  resolutions  had  been  presented  to  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  Mr.  Davis  took  occasion,  on  the  21st  of  February,  18GO  (the 
House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union),  to 
set  forth  his  opinions  of  them  and  their  contrivers  and  supporters  in  the 
following  speech : 

ME.  CHAIRMAN, — The  honorable  the  Legislature  of  Maryland 
has  decorated  me  with  its  censure.  It  is  in y  purpose  to  acknowl 
edge  that  compliment. 

It  is  long,  sir,  since  the  party  which  now  controls  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Maryland  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  majority  in 
both  its  branches,  and  it  has  so  conducted  itself  that  it  is  proba 
ble  it  will  be  long  ere  again  it  succeeds  in  getting  that  control. 

If  one  may  judge  from  the  course  and  conduct  of  that  body, 
the  gentlemen  who  compose  it  are  perhaps  more  surprised  at  their 
present  power  than  their  opponents.  They  do  not  appear  to  be 
less  bewildered  or  more  to  have  changed  their  original  nature 
than  Christophero  Sly,  when  waking  up,  after  his  debauch,  in  the 
nobleman's  chamber,  dazzled  with  the  unaccustomed  elegance 
which  surrounded  him,  he  began  to  question  himself  thus  : 

"  Am  I  a  lord?  and  have  I  such  a  lady? 
Or  do  I  dream  ?  or  have  I  dream'd  till  now  ? 
I  do  not  sleep ;  I  see,  I  hear,  I  speak ; 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  127 

I  smell  sweet  savors,  and  I  feel  soft  things ; 
Upon  my  life,  I  am  a  lord  indeed, 
And  not  a  tinker,  nor  Christophero  Sly. 
Well,  bring  our  lady  hither  to  our  sight : 
And  once  again,  a  pot  o'  the  smallest  ale. " 

Sudden  elevation  has  never  changed  the  character  of  the  per 
son  accidentally  raised  to  a  position  he  was  never  intended  by 
nature  to  occupy ;  and  those  who  imagine  it  ever  can  may  free 
themselves  from  that  delusion  by  looking  at  the  Legislature  of 
Maryland.  That  majority,  which  now  presumes  to  represent  the 
people  of  Maryland,  are  as  much  out  of  place  in  her  legislative 
halls  as  was  Christophero  in  the  lordly  chamber ;  and  they  retain 
and  reveal  their  natural  instincts  and  ability  as  did  Christophero 
his  preference  for  a  pot  o'  the  smallest  ale. 

There  is  no  department  of  legislation  to  which,  in  the  brief  pe 
riod  of  their  power,  they  have  not  applied  their  fingers,  and  it 
would  be  doing  them  injustice  to  say  that  there  is  any  they  have 
adorned. 

Greatly  deficient  in  that  first  quality  which  constitutes  the  leg 
islator — sound  practical  common  sense — they  abound  in  that 
genius  of  ignorance  which  so  amazed  and  delighted  Montesquieu's 
Persian  in  the  Parisian  professors — a  genius  which  enabled  them 
to  undertake  to  practice  and  teach,  with  the  utmost  confidence, 
arts  and  sciences  of  which  they  knew  nothing. 

Inexperienced  in  the  forms  of  legislation,  it  was  certainly  pru 
dent  that  they  should  be  attended  in  the  caucus,  where,  instead 
of  the  committee,  their  laws  are  matured,  by  learned  attorneys, 
not  members  of  either  House,  for  else  their  blunders  might  betray 
their  ignorance;  yet,  in  spite  of  this  wise  precaution,  this  Legisla 
ture  has  worthily  earned  for  itself  a  place  beside  that  lack-learn 
ing  Parliament  where  Lord  Coke  says  there  was  never  a  good 
law  passed. 

Not  elevated  to  the  full  sense  of  the  dignity  and  responsibility 
of  their  high  place  by  the  great  memories  which  surround  them 
in  the  State  House  where  daily  they  meet — where  once  the  great 
Congress  of  the  Revolution  sat,  and  where  George  "Washington 
surrendered  his  sword,  that  the  law  might  thenceforth  reign — the 
caucus  is  the  Legislature,  the  Legislature  the  recording  clerk  for 
the  dictates  of  the  caucus ;  debate  is  silenced  and  consideration  is 
banished.  At  a  suggestion  from  partisans  out  of  doors,  the  sacred 
rights  of  a  great  city  are  sacrificed ;  every  responsibility  surround- 


128  ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

ing  legislation  is  gone ;  and  the  result  has  been  such  a  series  of 
legislative  measures  as  will,  perhaps,  revive  in  the  memories  of 
the  people  of  Maryland  the  fading  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  ca 
lamity  inflicted  upon  them  when  Democrats  control  a  majority  in 
both  branches  of  their  Legislature. 

Since,  sir,  they  have  seen  fit  to  honor  me  with  their  censure,  it 
is  fit  that  this  high  and  honorable  body  should  have  the  means  a 
little  more  in  detail  of  appreciating  the  weight  of  that  censure. 

Ambitious  of  the  reputation  of  Justinian,  and  not  enlightened 
by  the  great  jurists  which  surrounded  his  throne,  the  General 
Assembly  of  Maryland,  in  the  first  few  days,  not  of  their  consult 
ation,  not  of  their  consideration,  but  of  their  session,  adopted, 
without  reading  it,  and  in  profound  ignorance  of  its  provision,  a 
code  defining  the  rights  of  person  and  of  property  of  every  citi 
zen  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  a  great  part  of  the  residue  of 
the  brief  period  assigned  them  by  the  Constitution  has  been  occu 
pied  in  repealing  and  altering  the  code  they  had  j  ust  adopted. 

Anxious  to  overrule  the  popular  will  and  touch  the  fruits  of 
political  success,  where  political  success  is  not  likely  to  be  attain 
ed  by  the  will  of  the  people,  they  have  been  exceedingly  desirous 
to  empty  some  of  the  offices  which,  in  Baltimore,  were  filled  by 
the  popular  vote;  and  evidence  having  been  taken  in  contests 
between  members  of  the  Legislature  and  persons  claiming  their 
seats,  the  honorable  the  committee  of  the  body  of  which  I  am 
speaking,  so  cognizant  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  so  aware  of  the 
rights  of  justice,  and  so  anxious  to  give  them  full  effect,  allows 
that  evidence,  taken  behind  the  backs  of  gentlemen  whose  offices 
are  contested,  to  be  put  in  against  them,  upon  the  witnesses 
merely  identifying  their  depositions  formerly  taken.  Perhaps 
they  were  conscious,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  some  witnesses  can  not 
safely  be  resworn  after  the  lapse  of  a  reasonable  time. 

In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  in  the  country  upon  the  Negro 
Question,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  have  some  men  among 
them  anxious  to  follow  the  deplorable  example  which  has  been 
set  recently  elsewhere,  shocking  to  the  sensibilities  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  of  Maryland,  of  reducing  into  slavery  the  men 
that  our  fathers  freed.  That  such  a  measure  is  now  depending 
before  that  Legislature,  and  receiving  such  consideration  as  it  can 
give  to  any  thing,  instead  of  having  been  instantly  rejected,  or 
leave  to  bring  it  in  refused — this,  sir,  would  be  cause  of  great  sur- 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  120 

prise  in  any  other  Legislature  assembled  in  Maryland.  But,  sir, 
I  fear  that  nothing  but  the  unanimous  shriek  of  indignation  which 
rung  from  one  end  of  Maryland  to  the  other  averted  the  danger 
of  the  passage  of  some  such  despotic  and  oppressive  measure,  and 
one  seriously  and  rashly  unsettling  the  industrial  interests  of 
Maryland. 

From  these  few  circumstances,  perhaps,  we  may  begin  to  divine 
something  of  the  character  of  that  honorable  body  and  the  scope 
of  its  legislative  sagacity.  They  are  still  more  careful  of  South 
ern  rights.  They  boast  themselves  their  sole  guardians  in  Mary 
land.  They  are  diligent  and  not  unsuccessful  students  of  the  de 
bates  of  this  House.  They  were  smitten  with  admiration  of  the 
resolution  offered — and  so  long  debated  in  this  House — by  the 
honorable  gentleman,  my  friend  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Clark].  A 
bill  was  pending  before  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  for  the  pur 
pose  of  disfranchising  a  great  city  refractory  to  the  Democratic 
yoke.  Certain  respectable  attorneys,  knowing  as  much  of  con 
stitutional  law  as  is  comprised  in  the  art  of  special  pleading,  as 
pired  to  apply  these  microscopic  principles  of  their  favorite  art  to 
the  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  result  of  that  novel 
application  was  a  bill  which  annulled  by  evasion,  and  repealed 
by  direct  enactment  of  the  Legislature,  some  of  the  most  funda 
mental  provisions  of  the  Constitution  itself.  Accepted  at  the 
hands  of  its  legal  originators  by  the  caucus — if  ever  read,  yet 
never  understood  by  the  majority  in  either  House — it  was  about 
to  receive  the  confirmation  of  the  Legislature,  when  a  grave  omis 
sion  was  discovered.  It  said  nothing  about  the  Negro  Question. 
That  was  beyond  the  province  of  special  pleading  ;t  and  the  Leg 
islature  rashly  tried  their  'prentice  hand  on  a  proviso.  They  sol 
emnly  incorporated  in  the  bill  the  following  clause : 

"Proi-idcd,  That  no  Black  Republican,  or  indorser  or  supporter  of  tlie  Helper 
book,  shall  be  appointed  to  any  office  under  the  said  board." 

Upon  its  passage,  the  yeas  and  nays  were  called  and  recorded : 
but  T  should  not  perform  a  grateful  task  were  I  to  rescue  their 
names  from  their  native  oblivion  and  spread  them  on  the  face  of 
the  debates  of  this  House. 

The  proviso  was  the  fit  cap  and  bells  for  such  a  bill.  Its  pro 
visions  deprived  a  great  city  of  their  constitutional  right  to  self- 
government  by  a  flagrant  usurpation.  It  was  fit  that  the  men 
who  were  ambitious  of  the  honor  of  passing  that  act  should  like- 

I 


130  ON  TPIE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

wise  place  in  the  bill  the  measure  of  their  capacity,  by  enacting 
what  they,  with  the  same  breath,  condemned.  Perhaps  the  most 
obnoxious  portion  of  Helper's  book  is  the  proscription  of  fellow- 
citizens  for  their  opinions  on  slavery ;  and  the  proviso,  for  the 
first  time  in  American  legislation,  excludes  by  law  from  a  munic 
ipal  office  all  the  members  of  the'  most  numerous  political  party 
in  the  United  States  by  their  party  name,  and  because  of  their 
political  opinions  ascribed  to  them  by  their  enemies.  The  pro 
viso  does  not  confine  its  exclusion  to  the  approvers  of  Helper's 
work — itself  sufficiently  ridiculous — but  deprives  the  honorable 
gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Corwin]  and  the  Speaker  of  this 
House,  and  the  governor  of  almost  every  free  state,  and  over 
a  million  of  voters,  from  all  chance  of  promotion  in  the  Police 
Department  of  Baltimore.  Possibly  the  people  might  not  have 
selected  them,  but  the  Legislature  apparently  feared  that  their 
Board  of  Commissioners  might. 

Their  vigilance  having  been  once  awakened,  they  were  not 
content  with  having  thus  protected  the  institutions  of  the  people 
of  Maryland  against  the  wiles  of  this  great  Northern  party  by 
excluding  them  from  the  high  and  lucrative  position  of  policemen. 
They  were  called  upon  shortly  afterward  to  pass  upon  another 
measure — a  city  railroad  for  Baltimore — a  dangerous  contrivance 
of  Northern  ingenuity,  which  would  cover  with  its  network  of 
tracks  that  great  city,  on  whose  cars  thousands  of  people  might 
come  in  contact  daily  with  the  conductors  and  directors,  and  by 
them,  if  not  sound,  the  subtle  poison  of  anti-slavery  sentiment 
might  be  diffused  through  all  the  streets  and  alleys  of  Baltimore, 
without  any  body  being  the  wiser.  That  sagacious  and  learned 
body,  the  Senate,  having  hurried  through  the  code  for  the'  pur 
pose  of  getting  at  those  things  which  touch  the  vital  interests  of 
the  country,  having  before  them  this  bill  for  the  inauguration  of 
that  great  modern  convenience  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  thought 
that  there  likewise  they  should  protect  themselves  by  law  against 
this  poison  in  the  atmosphere.  And  therefore  it  was  provided, 
and  now  stands  as  a  part  of  that  bill, 

"That  no  Black  Republican,  or  indorser  or  approver  of  the  Helper  book  (laugh 
ter)  shall  receive  any  of  the  benefits  and  privileges  of  this  act,  or  be  employed  in 
any  capacity  by  the  said  railway  company."  (Renewed  laughter.) 

I  want  honorable  gentlemen  upon  this  side  of  the  House,  the 
Helperites  as  well  as  others,  to  know,  that  when  they  pass  home 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  131 

through  the  city  of  Baltimore  they  must  be  prepared,  at  the  car 
doors,  to  deny  their  political  principles,  or  lose  the  lightning  train. 
(Laughter.)  Disappointed  office-seekers  here  can  find  employ 
ment  there  only  by  apostasy,  and  secret  trusts  alone  can  secure 
Black  Kepublican  capital  in  this  lucrative  investment.  ( 

Sir,  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  there  was  before  the  Legislature 
another  bill  for  the  purpose  of  endowing  an  agricultural  society 
for  the  state.  An  energetic,  but  not  discreet  representative  of  the 
dominant  party  rose  and  moved  to  apply  this  proviso  to  that  bill. 
We  all  know  that  contamination  does  not  spread  so  rapidly  in  the 
rural  districts  as  in  our  great  cities,  and  some  legislator,  more  sa 
gacious  than  his  brethren,  reflected  that  there  are  Black  Republi- 
cans  who  raise  Morgan  horses,  and  Durham  cattle,  and  Southdown 
sheep,  and  Alderneys,  and  that  occasionally  a  Black  Republican 
invents  a  plow,  and  that  these  things  lessen  the  burden  or  enhance 
the  profits  of  agricultural  labor,  and  in  singular  contrast  to  the 
rest  of  their  conduct,  in  a  lucid  interval,  they  actually  voted  down 
the  proviso ! 

But  the  Senate,  having  at  this  point  made  themselves,  as  the 
Frenchman  would  say,  suspected,  in  spite  of  their  earnest  and 
disinterested  guardianship  of  Southern  institutions,  even  at  the 
expense  of  making  themselves  ridiculous,  the  House  of  Delegates 
next  assumed  the  guardianship  of  the  representative  upon  this 
floor.  They  had  passed  a  resolution,  prior  to  the  election  of 
speaker,  which  was  intended  to  condemn  beforehand  any  vote 
which  should  not  be  for  some  one  of  the  honorable  gentlemen 
from  the  Democratic  party.  I  knew  it  was  aimed  at  me ;  for  they 
knew  that,  highly  as  I  respect  those  gentlemen— eminently  fit  by 
knowledge  and  experience  for  that  position  as  I  know  many  of 
them  to  be — entire  as  is  my  confidence  in  their  personal  honor,  to 
the  extent  of  trusting  my  fortune,  my  life,  and  my  honor  in  their 
hands,  yet  I  did  not  consider  them  safe  depositors  for  any  of  the 
political  powers  of  this  government,  and  that  all  they  could  do 
would  not  make  me  waver  one  hair's  breadth  from  what  they 
knew  was  my  firm  resolve. 

But  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  gentlemen  upon  that  side  of  the 
legislative  body  are  more  devoted  to  study  the  Cincinnati  plat 
form  than  Blair's  Rhetoric  or  Whately's  Rules  of  Logic,  and  they 
became  afflicted  with  that  entire  incapacity  of  saying  any  thing 
which  has  not  two  meanings  which  so  singularly  characterizes  the 


132  ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

authors  of  that  remarkable  platform.  They  moved  a  resolution  in 
such  ambiguous  terms  that  my  honorable  friends  in  the  Maryland 
Legislature  thought  it  was  a  condemnation  of  the  gentlemen  on 
the  administration  side  of  the  House  for  not  having  elected  the 
gentleman  from  North  Carolina,  for  whom  I  cast  my  vote  so  per- 
severingly  and  so  fruitlessly.  I  had  intended  to  waive  the  benefit 
of  the  ambiguity.  I  intended  to  have  responded  to  them  in  the 
sense  of  the  gentleman  who  moved  them;  but  events  were  so  rapid 
that,  before  I  could  have  an  opportunity  to  express  my  opinion 
of  them,  I  was  overwhelmed  and  oppressed  by  another.  The  ele 
vation  of  the  gentleman  from  New  Jersey  to  the  speaker's  chair 
instantly  revived  all  their  earnestness  for  the  protection  of  South 
ern  rights. 

My  vote  recalled  to  them  that  they  were  committed  by  what 
they  had  said  before  to  follow  it  up  with  an  explicit  condemna 
tion  of  the  act  which  had  now  been  perpetrated.  And  thereupon 
the  honorable  the  House  of  Delegates  of  Maryland  thus  resolved : 

"Resolved,  ly  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland,  That  Henry  Winter  Davis,  act 
ing  in  Congress  as  one  of  the  representatives  of  this  state — " 

Sir,  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  those  gentlemen  do  not  act 
in  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  as  representatives  of  Maryland — 

"by  his  vote  for  Mr. Pennington — " 

They  did  not  know  his  Christian  name — 

"the  candidate  of  the  Black  Republican  party — " 

Think  of  it,  Mr.  Chairman !  spread  upon  the  statute-book  of 
Maryland  forever !  "of  the  Black  Republican  party — " 

"for  the  speakership  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  has  misrepresented  the  senti 
ment  of  all  parts  of  this  state,  and  thereby  forfeited  the  confidence  of  her  people." 

I  respectfully  tell  the  gentlemen  who  voted  for  that  resolution 
to  take  back  their  message  to  their  masters,  and  say  that  I  speak 
to  their  masters  face  to  face,  and  not  through  them.  Sir,  it  has 
always  been  the  striking  and  marked  peculiarity  of  that  part}* 
which  now  accidentally,  and  only  temporarily,  predominates  in 
the  councils  of  Maryland,  that  they  will  allow  no  opportunity  to 
pass  of  what  they  call  "indicating  their  entire  fealty  to  the 
South ;"  and  that,  sir,  always  consists  in  exciting  sectional  strife, 
in  mooting  matters  which  men  ought  not  to  argue,  in  libeling 
their  neighbors,  in  endeavoring  to  make  them  hateful  and  disgust 
ing  to  their  fellow-citizens,  in  giving  an  advertisement  to  the 
whole  country  that  every  body  that  is  not  a  Democrat  is  an  Abo- 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  133 

litionist ;  and  that,  if  any  fanatics  shall  see  fit  at  any  time  to  come 
within  the  limits  of  a  Southern  state  for  the  purpose  of  shaking 
and  unsettling  the  solid  foundations  of  society,  there  would  be 
found  men  who,  if  they  feared  to  join  them,  would  yet  sympa- 
'thize  with  them.  Their  whole  policy  is  to  poison  the  minds  of 
our  people  against  every  man  not  a  Democrat  in  the  free  states, 
to  inspire  them  with  distrust,  apprehension,  and  terror,  to  teach 
them  to  look  on  the  accession  to  power  of  any  one  called  by  the 
name  of  Kepublican  as  not  merely  a  change  of  power  from  one 
to  another  political  party,  differing  in  principle  and  policy,  but 
equally  loyal  to  the  United  States,  but  as  not  far  removed  from 
such  oppression  and  danger  as  to  furnish  just  cause  of  seeking 
revolutionary  remedies.  Their  hope  seems  to  be  to  retain  power 
by  the  fears  of  one  half  the  people  for  the  existence  of  slavey, 
and  of  the  other  half  for  the  existence  of  the  Union.  Agitation, 
clamor,  vituperation,  audacious  and  pertinacious,  are  their  weapons 
of  warfare.  Of  this  spirit  the  Legislature  of  Maryland,  as  now 
constituted,  is  the  incarnation.  It  stands  the  embodiment  of 
that  terrific  vision  of  the  Portress  of  Hell  gate,  who,  to  the  eye  of 
Milton. 

"Seemed  woman  to  the  waist,  and  fair, 
But  ended  foul  in  many  a  scaly  fold 
Voluminous  and  vast — a  serpent  armed 
With  mortal  sting  ;  about  her  middle  round 
A  cry  of  hell-hounds  never  ceasing  barked 
With  wide  Cerberean  mouths  full  loud,  and  rung 
A  hideous  peal ;  yet  when  they  list  would  creep, 
If  aught  disturbed  their  noise,  into  her  womb 
And  kennel  there,  yet  there  still  barked  and  howled 
Within  unseen." 

And  they,  as  false  to  their  mission  as  the  Portress  of  Hell 
to  hers,  stand  ready,  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  their  hold  of 
power,  to  let  loose  on  this  blessed  land  the  Satan  of  demoniacal 
passion. 

And  then,  sir,  in  the  midst  of  these  more  noisy,  boisterous,  and 
disturbing  elements,  there  is  a  certain  number  of  small,  shriveled, 
restless  beings,  incapable  of  wielding  the  arms  of  logic  or  of  rea 
son,  yet  skillful  to  scratch  with  poisoned  weapons.  Of  such  are 
the  honorable  gentlemen  who  contrived  the  resolution. 

They  supposed  that  I  was  so  weak  before  my  friends  in  Mary 
land  that  they  could  take  from  rne  the  confidence  of  that  constitu- 


134  ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

ency  that  has  stood  by  me  through  good  report  and  through  evil 
report,  while  it  blew  a  storm  as  well  as  when  it  was  calm.  Sir, 
I  REPRESENT  MY  constituents ;  and  I  know  the  people  of  Mary 
land  even  beyond  the  limits  of  my  constituents  better  than  these 
dabblers  in  eternal  agitation ;  and  I  say  that,  right  or  wrong,  wise 
or  unwise,  honest  in  its  motives  or  unfaithful  in  its  motives,  that 
vote  of  mine  is,  to-day,  not  only  approved,  but  honored  and  ap 
plauded  by  every  man  whose  opinion  I  regard.  (Applause  in  the 
galleries.)  I  say  that  now,  this  day,  I  am  stronger  in  my  district 
and  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  in  any  appeal  I  may  see  fit  to  make 
to  the  people,  on  my  vote  for  speaker,  than  all  the  banded  body 
of  the  Legislature  bound  into  one  man.  And,  sir,  unless  I  am 
greatly  deceived  by  the  press  of  the  Southern  opposition,  the 
American  members  of  the  Legislature  are  as  little  in  sympathy 
with  their  political  friends  of  the  South  as  they  are  with  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland. 

Why,  sir,  what  are  the  circumstances  of  that  election  ?  I,  sir, 
have  no  apologies  to  make.  I  have  no  excuses  to  render.  "What 
I  did,  I  did  on  my  own  judgment,  and  did  not  look  across  my 
shoulder  to  see  what  my  constituents  would  think.  I  told  my 
constituents  that  I  would  come  here  a  free  man,  or  not  at  all ;  and 
they  sent  me  here  on  that  condition.  I  told  them  that  if  they 
wanted  a  slave  to  represent  them,  they  could  get  plenty,  but  I 
was  not  one.  I  told  them  that  I  had  already  passed  through  more 
than  one  difficult,  complex,  dangerous  session  of  Congress ;  that  I 
had  been  obliged,  again  and  again,  to  do  that  which  is  least 
grateful  to  my  feelings ;  to  stand  not  merely  opposed  to  my  hon 
orable  political  opponents,  but  to  stand  alone  among  my  political 
friends  without  the  strength,  and  support  which  a  public  man  re 
ceives  from  being  buoyed  up  breast-high  by  men  of  like  senti 
ments,  elected  on  like  principles,  and  who,  if  there  be  error,  would 
stand  as  a  shield  and  bulwark  between  him  and  his  responsibility. 
I  foresaw  then,  exactly  as  it  resulted,  that  the  time  would  come 
when  I  would  be  obliged  again  to  take  that  stand  ;  and  I  wanted 
my  people  to  know  it,  so  that  if  they  chose  to  have  another  one, 
who  would  go  contrary  to  his  judgment,  and  bend  like  a  willow 
when  the  storm  came,  they  might  pick  him  out,  and  choose  the 
material  for  their  work. 

Mr.  Chairman,  they  sent  me  here,  and  I  have  done  what  I 
know  was  my  duty.  Sir,  it  is  my  proud  satisfaction  at  this  mo- 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  135 

ment  that,  having  given  no  side-wind  reasons,  having  made  no 
apologetic  statement,  spontaneously,  without  asking,  I  know  this 
day  that  my  constituents  approve  what  I  have  done ;  and  that, 
if  not  the  fit  reason  for  my  doing  so,  is  at  least  a  consolation  after 
doing  it. 

The  honorable  gentlemen  of  the  Legislature  presume  to  know 
better  what  my  constituents  think  than  I  do.  They  possibly  will 
find  out  that  they  do  not  know  so  much  about  the  honorable  gen 
tleman  who  occupies  the  speaker's  chair  as  my  constituents  know. 
The  objection  made  to  me  in  the  Maryland  Legislature  by  the 
mover  of  one  of  the  resolutions  was,  that  I  had  not  voted  for  my 
friend  from  North  Carolina.  The  rapidity  of  the  transit  of  infor 
mation  from  Washington  to  Annapolis  is  apparent  to  any  one. 
The  diligence  with  which  these  self-constituted  judges  of  my  con 
duct  make  themselves  acquainted  with  it,  adds  greatly  to  the 
weight  of  their  condemnation.  The  care  with  which  the}7  studied 
the  code  before  its  passage  leads  me  to  fear  that  they  learn  our 
proceedings  chiefly  from  expurgated  editions  in  their  country 
newspapers,  via  Alleghany  and  St.  Mary's.  Not  only  no  Demo 
crat,  but  no  American,  could,  or  ventured,  or  cared  to  correct  the 
blunder. 

Thus  ignorant  of  contemporary  events,  it  were  unreasonable  to 
expect  them  to  know  events  twenty  years  old — to  them  a  period 
beyond  the  memory  of  man  or  newspaper — the  subject  of  tradi 
tion  merely. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  they  could  identify  the  honorable 
gentleman  who  so  worthily  fills  the  speaker's  chair  with  that 
Whig  governor  of  New  Jersey,  whose  broad  seal  was  discarded 
by  the  Democrats  of  this  House  when  they  wished  to  usurp  the 
speakership  of  the  House,  and  had  not  the  votes  to  do  it  without 
rejecting  the  votes  of  the  New  Jersey  members.  They  did  not, 
but  my  constituents  do  know  that  fact ;  and  they  think  that  his 
elevation  is  a  righteous  rebuke,  after  long  delay,  for  that  usurpa 
tion.  They  know — though  it  can  not  be  supposed  the  Legislature 
do — that  the  Governor  of  New  Jersey  of  that  day  was  a  Whig  in 
the  day  of  Whig  greatness.  The  gentlemen  of  the  Legislature 
can  not  be  expected  to  know,  but  my  constituents  know,  that  Gen 
eral  Taylor  appointed  to  a  high  office,  in  his  gift,  the  same  dis 
tinguished  gentleman,  and  that,  though  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  unanimously  confirmed  him,  he  declined  the  honor.  The 


136  ON  THE  IlESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

gentlemen  of  this  Legislature  can  not  be  expected  to  know  that 
Millard  Fillmore,  whose  name  at  this  day,  in  Maryland,  stands 
second  only  to  that  of  the  immortal  Clay,  appointed  him  likewise 
to  another  high  and  responsible  office,  which  he  declined  to  ac 
cept.  Perhaps  his  contempt  for  office  excites  their  indignation. 
They,  of  course,  can  not  be  expected  to  know  that  the  distin 
guished  gentlemen  to  whom  I  refer  is  a  Whig  in  his  politics,  now 
called  a  Eepublican,  in  favor  of  the  enforcement  of  every  law 
that  any  Southern  state  has  any  interest  in,  and  of  that  one  in 
which  Maryland,  more  than  any  other,  has  a  direct  and  practical, 
not  a  political  and  party  interest.  The  gentlemen  of  the  Legisla 
ture  could  not  be  expected  to  know — but  my  constituents  know — 
that  this  honorable  gentleman  is  sound  on  all  those  more  practi 
cal  questions  touching  the  protection  of  American  industry  and 
river  and  harbor  improvements,  in  which  they  have  so  direct  and 
deep  an  interest.  They  know  full  well  that  it  is  by  the  votes  of 
such  men  we  must  secure  the  inauguration  of  that  policy,  so  es 
sential  to  the  industrial  interests  of  Maryland. 

The  gentlemen  of  the  Legislature  may  not  know — but  my  con 
stituents  know — that,  above  and  beyond  all  other  things,  the  gen 
tleman  whom  I  aided  in  elevating  to  the  chair  is  of  moderate 
views,  in  favor  of  silence  on  the  slavery  question,  of  putting  an 
end  to  the  internecine  strife  of  sections  that  has  raged  for  years, 
and,  therefore,  of  all  men  the  man  to  sit  in  that  chair — at  once  the 
symbol  and  the  pledge  to  the  country  of  the  peace  that  is  before 
us,  if  we  will  only  not  repel  it.  It  is  because  my  constituents 
know  and  approve  these  things  that  they  approve  my  vote. 

I  supposed  that  there  would  be  clamor  over  that  vote.  I  did 
not  intend  to  trouble  myself  about  it.  I  knew  the  quarter  from 
which  it  was  likely  to  come.  I  knew  that  the  majority  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Legislature  would  adopt  some  such  resolution. 
I  confess  myself  surprised  that  my  own  friends,  excepting  four 
of  them,  voted  for  it.  I  fear  that  in  an  evil  hour  some  of  them 
allowed  themselves  to  be  frightened.  I  suspect  some  of  them 
were  afraid  that  they  should  be  called  "  Abolitionists."  Subjected 
to  the  torture  of  voting  against  a  resolution  which  was  supposed 
to  be  in  favor  of  Southern  rights,  or  of  deserting  a  friend,  they 
could  not  be  expected  to  regard  justice  to  me  rather  than  safety 
to  themselves.  So  every  man  took  care  of  himself.  Some  voted 
for  the  resolutions  who  went  through  their  election  on  my  shoul- 


BY  THE  MAKYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  137 

ders.  They  did  not  know  that  when  they  saw  away  the  bough 
between  themselves  and  the  tree  they  must  fall.  (Laughter.) 
But,  sir,  it  was  a  curious  scene,  that  vote.  The  clerk  called  the 
name  of  an  American  in  the  Legislature  once,  and  there  was  a 
pause ;  twice,  and  there  was  a  shuffling ;  thrice,  and  there  was  a 
hesitating  response.  Then  there  was  a  period  of  blessed  repose, 
when  certain  Democratic  names  were  called,  and  were  responded 
to  with  that  earnestness  with  which  Democrats  always  respond 
when  aiming  a  blow  at  a  political  adversary.  Then  some  unfor 
tunate  Americans  were  called  upon  to  vote.  The  gentlemen 
stood  first  on  one  leg,  and  then  on  the  other,  in  sad  doubt  on 
which  to  rest;  gentlemen  looked  over  their  shoulders  to  see  if 
there  were  not  some  dust  of  a  coming  reprieve ;  some  rushed  t'o 
inquire  of  friends  whether  they  ought  or  ought  not  to  vote  for 
the  resolution ;  while  there  sat  their  inexorable  and  determined 
opponents,  with  their  eyes  glaring  upon  them  and  their  mouths 
open,  sure  of  their  prey  after  the  fluttering  was  over;  and  in  they 
went.  (Laughter.)  The  scene  I  am  sure  I  should  never  have 
been  able  to  describe  had  it  not  been  for  the  torture  and  agony 
which  certain  honorable  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of  the 
House  suffered  when  called  upon  to  cast  a  patriotic  vote  for  my 
friend  from  North  Carolina,  (Renewed  laughter.)  Sir,  I  admire 
the  audacity  of  the  Maryland  Democrat  as  much  as  I  deplore  the 
weakness  of  the  Maryland  American. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  know  that  I  have  to  meet — and  I  shall  meet 
with  all  equanimity — all  the  obloquy  that  is  attached  to  the  course 
that  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  pursue,  and  I  know  that,  so 
far  as  I  am  worth  pursuing — a  gentleman  in  the  Legislature  had 
difficulties  about  passing  the  resolution  for  fear  it  should'give  me 
too  much  importance — so  far  as  I  am  worth  pursuing,  I  do  not 
doubt  that  I  shall  be  well  hounded.  I  remember  that  a  great 
many  years  ago,  not  this  hall,  but  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives, 
was  the  scene  of  a  great  struggle,  which  excited  the  country  at 
that  day  as  much  as  the  one  through  which  we  have  just  passed 
excited  us^in  our  day;  and  I  remember,  sir,  that  there  wa^  an 
illustrious  individual  who  there  found  himself  bound  by  his  duty 
to  the  country  to  depart  from  his  personal  preferences,  and,  to 
some  extent,  from  his  political  friends,  and  to  cast  a  decisive  vote 
for  John  Quincy  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  for  President;  and 
from  that  day  to  the  day  of  his  death  there  was  no  time  that  the 


138          ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

howl  of  "bargain  and  corruption"  did  not  pursue  him  to  his 
grave.  Sir,  I  have  sat  at  his  feet  and  learned  my  political  princi 
ples.  I  can  tread  his  path  of  political  martyrdom.  Before  any 
cry  of  Legislatures  or  people  I  will  not  yield ;  they  may  pass 
over  my  prostrate  body  or  my  ruined  reputation,  but  step  aside 
I  will  not  to  avoid  either  fate.  I  care  not,  sir,  whether  it  be  in 
one  shape  or  another  that  the  danger  may  come.  I  am  aware 
that  we  all  this  day  regard  the  Negro  Question  as  that  which  is 
decisive,  important,  and  controlling.  There  have  been  others  at 
other  times  equally  important,  equally  exciting,  equally  control 
ling.  There  have  been  Legislatures  that  have  been  anxious  to 
strike  down  a  political  opponent.  There  have  been  timid  constit 
uencies  who  have  deserted  their  representatives  for  serving  them 
too  faithfully  ;  there  have  been  stormy  constituencies  which  de 
manded  humiliating  things  of  their  representatives.  The  spe 
cial  trial  of  our  day  comes  from  the  feverish  excitement  on  the 
Slavery  Question,  and  the  despotic  intolerance  of  any  deviation 
from  the  extremest  views  of  either  side.  For  myself,  sir,  on  every 
question  I  mean  to  assert  my  independence,  awed  by  no  authority 
into  acts  which  I  disapprove — 

"Non  civium  ardor  prava  jiibentium, 
Mente  quatit  solida — neque  auster  " — 

no,  sir,  not  even  the  south  wind.  Whether  it  relate  to  a  matter  of 
financial  policy  or  to  a  matter  of  sectional  strife,  no  man  is  fit  for 
this  place  who  is  not  willing  to  take  his  political  life  in  his  hand, 
and,  without  looking  back,  go  forward  on  the  line  of  what  he  re 
gards  as  right,  and,  sir,  whether  it  relates  to  the  material  interests 
of  my  constituents,  or  to  those  great  political  interests  which  are 
supposed  to  be  bound  up  with  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the 
slave  states,  I  trust  I  shall  never  allow  myself,  by  any  clamor  or 
by  any  storm,  however  loud  or  however  fierce,  for  an  instant  to 
be  made  to  veer  from  that  course  which  strikes  me  to  be  right. 
I  am  not  here  merely  as  a  member  from  the  fourth  congressional 
district  of  Maryland.  I  am  not  here  merely  to  represent  the  resi 
due  .of  the  State  of  Maryland.  I  am  not  entitled  to  consult  their 
prejudices  as  only  worthy  of  regard.  I  am  bound  to  look  to  a 
wider  constituency,  to  a  higher  duty.  If  my  duty  to  that  wider 
constituency  can  be  made  to  promote  the  interests  of  my  local  con 
stituency,  then  my  duty  to  the  two  coincides.  But,  sir,  in  the 
great  necessities  of  public  life,  there  have  been  heretofore,  and 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  139 

there  may  be  again,  occasions  on  which  I  may  be  called  upon, 
as  other  public  men  have  heretofore  been,  to  make  the  painful 
decision  that  the  interest  of  the  nation  requires  that  I  shall  disre 
gard  the  opinions,  unanimous,  firm,  repeatedly  expressed,  of  my 
constituency.  I  humbly  pray  that  that  may  not  occur,  but  that, 
if  it  do,  I  shall  have  strength  equal  to  the  occasion ;  at  least  such 
now  is  my  resolution. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  had  intended,  but  I  have  not  time,  to  speak  to 
one  or  two  other  points.  (Cries  of  "  Go  on  !")  I  think  that  the 
spirit  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  resolutions  which  the  lower 
House  of  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  in  an  evil  hour  has  adopted, 
is  of  sinister  import  to  the  people  of  this  country.  I  wish,  sir,  I 
had  time  to  develop  how  sinister  it  is. 

They  were  extraordinary  circumstances  under  which  the  elec 
tion  of  speaker  took  place,  which  is  summarily  condemned  by 
that  Legislature.  We  had  met,  and  been  struggling  for  eight 
weeks,  I  think.  At  the  meeting  of  this  session  of  Congress,  an 
explosion  of  passion  of  revolutionary  intensity — beyond  any  thing- 
it  has  been  my  fortune  to  see  here  or  to  read  of  outside  of  the 
revolutionary  assemblies  of  Paris — greeted  us  upon  our  advent. 
One  great  body  of  gentlemen,  evidently  deeply  in  earnest,  how 
ever  much  I  may  deplore  that  earnestness,  and  however  much  I 
may  think  them  in  error  in  their  estimate  of  the  causes  of  their 
indignation,  manifestly  felt  themselves  to  be  upon  the  brink  of 
great,  decisive,  and  revolutionary  events.  One  portion  of  this 
House,  day  after  day,  branded  the  representatives  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  free  states  as  traitors  to  the  country, 
instigators  of  assassination,  bent  upon  breaking  up  and  destroying 
slavery  in  the  states,  carrying  into  the  midst  of  our  families  the 
torch  and  the  knife  of  the  assassin  and  incendiary.  Great  states, 
moved  from  their  propriety,  passed  beyond  what  hitherto  they 
had  done,  and  adopted  resolutions  which,  however  moderate  in 
their  tone,  looked  revolutionary  in  their  aspect,  and  must,  in  their 
execution,  have  been  revolutionary.  For  the  first  time,  I  believe, 
in  the  history  of  the  government,  a  great  and  patriotic  state  was 
so  deeply  moved  as  to  be  forgetful  of  that  clause  of  the  Constitu 
tion  which  forbids  the  entering  of  one  state  into  compacts  or 
agreements  with  another,  and  to  send  one  of  her  justly-distin 
guished  citizens  to  the  capital  of  Virginia  for  the  purpose  of  ar 
ranging  a  common  consultation  among  the  Southern  States — not 


140  ON  THE  KESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

one  of  those  Conventions  which  from  time  to  time  have  met  under 
the  usurped  authority  of  a  governor ;  not  one  of  those  commer 
cial  conventions  which  from  time  to  time  have  been  the  result  of 
a  movement  on  the  part  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple — "but  a  mission  assuming  all  the  solemn  forms  of  an  embass}r, 
speaking  the  tones  of  the  last  hour  before  the  revolution  breaks 
out,  appealing  to  the  people  of  Virginia,  in  their  sovereign  capa 
city  as  represented  in  their  Legislature,  by  reason  of  a  melancholy 
event  which  had  just  transpired,  to  send  delegates  by  law  to  a 
Convention  of  states  which,  if  it  did  any  thing,  must  assume  the 
form  and  functions  of  that  great  revolutionary  Congress  which 
took  the  earlier  steps  to  break  the  bonds  that  bound  our  fathers 
to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain. 

I  do  not  agree  with  those  gentlemen  as  to  the  cause  of  that  ex 
citement.  I  profoundly  regret  the  steps  that  those  various  Legis 
latures  thought  fit  to  take,  as  much  as  I  deplore  the  intense  agi 
tation  of  the  popular  mind  which  tolerated  or  favored  their  adop 
tion.  But,  sir,  I  stand  here  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of 
these  United  States — not  of  any  other  confederacy  which  a  future 
sun  may  rise  upon — to  support  the  Constitution  of  these  United 
States ;  and,  under  these  circumstances,  was  it  to  be  expected,  or 
did  the  people  of  Maryland  expect,  that  their  representative  here 
should,  when  his  vote  would  elevate  to  the  speaker's  chair  a  gen 
tleman,  personally  and  politically,  in  every  way  so  far  as  I  am 
acquainted  with  his  character  and  previous  conduct,  a  symbol  of 
peace — of  peace  to  those  very  states  that  were  so  excited  and  revo 
lutionary  in  their  measures — that  I  should  allow  the  opportunity 
to  pass  of  placing  that  olive-branch  where  men  all  over  this  wide 
land  could  see  it?  Or,  sir,  to  take  another  alternative,  if  the  dire 
day  must  come  that  peaceful  secession  shall  be  attempted,  and  it 
shall  be  found  that  peaceful  secession  means  the  arrest  of  the  Unit 
ed  States  marshal  in  the  execution  of  his  office,  the  driving  of 
the  United  States  judge  from  the  seat  of  justice,  the  taking  pos 
session  of  the  Custom-houses  of  the  United  States,  the  arresting 
the  execution  of  all  the  laws  of  the  United  States — sir,  was  it  in 
accordance  with  my  duty  here  to  allow  this  government  to  be 
caught  in  circumstances  so  grave,  in  a  crisis  so  imminent,  without 
a  House  of  Representatives  competent  to  sanction  measures  which 
then  might  be  necessary  ?  Was  it  not  a  still  higher  duty  to  avert 
the  very  possibility  of  collisions  so  disastrous  by  removing  the 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  141 

apprehensions  which  might  precipitate  them?  And  how  could 
that  be  so  well  accomplished  as  by  the  elevation  to  the  contested 
chair  of  a  gentleman  whose  previous  political  relations,  whose 
known  character  for  moderation,  whose  opinions  on  the  most 
vexed  and  delicate  questions  of  an  administrative  character 
touching  the  sensitive  interests  of  the  slave  states,  whose  gray 
hairs,  crowning  a  long  life  of  honor,  all  gave  assurance  to  those 
who  looked  with  undefined  apprehension  to  a  different  result  of 
the  contest  for  speaker — that  under  his  auspices  there  might  be 
peace — that  at  least  there  is  time  for  reflection — that  at  least  there 
is  an  hour  before  strife,  when  men  may  pause  and  become  cool  ? 

The  honorable  the  House  of  Delegates  thought  otherwise. 
Such  considerations  were  wholly  beneath  their  view — that  anar 
chy  had  better  reign  than  that  any  one  called  by  the  name  of 
Eepublican  should  be  elected  speaker;  than  that  the  people  of 
Maryland  should  see  the  sad  example  of  the  whole  body  of  the 
Eepublican  representatives  uniting  to  elect  a  gentleman  known 
and  formally  declared,  in  their  hearing,  to  favor  the  enforcement 
of  every  law,  and  the  protection  of  every  interest  they  are  repre 
sented  to  be  bent  on  destroying ;  nay,  for  the  overthrow  and  ruin 
of  which  their  very  party  is  pronounced  a  conspiracy. 

Sir,  there  is  no  act  of  my  life  I  less  regret,  none  more  defensible 
on  high  and  statesmanlike  reasons,  none  where  the  event  has  more 
promptly  indicated  its  wisdom.  Even  now  its  fruits  are,  if  I  mis 
take  not,  visible.  The  people  are  relapsing  into  repose  in  the 
country.  Chafed  passions  explode  less  violently  in  the  House. 

I  trust  that  now  the  calmer  judgment  of  the  other  side  of  the 
House  will  modify  their  views  heretofore  expressed,  and  limit  and 
soften  the  sweeping  judgment  which  impeached  a  whole  political 
party  of  conspiracy  to  promote  servile  insurrection. 

I  think  they  will  be  inclined  to  take  a  somewhat  different  view 
of  the  origin,  the  character,  and  the  scope  of  John  Brown's  crime. 

It  was  no  invasion  of  Virginia  at  all,  still  less  an  invasion  of 
Virginia  by  or  from  a  free  state.  It  was  a  conspiracy  to  free  ne 
groes,  arrested  in  the  attempt,  defended  with  arms,  stained  with 
murder,  and  punished  with  death.  It  was  a  crime  to  be  dealt 
with  by  judge,  and  jury,  and  sheriff. 

The  utmost  vigilance  of  two  governments  has  failed  to  trace  a 
single  connection  with  any  body  of  men  in  any  state.  Two  of 
Brown's  confederates  were  arrested  in  Pennsylvania  without  war- 


142  ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

rant,  and  carried  without  a  guard  to  jail  in  Virginia.  His  arsenal 
contained  two  hundred  Sharpe's  rifles  and  something  over  a 
thousand  pikes ;  his  army  consisted  of  about  twenty  men :  such 
were  the  means  provided  by  eighteen  millions  of  people  for  the 
invasion  of  ten  millions ;  for,  though  rumor  promised  him  succor, 
no  one  ever  saw  a  body  of  men  or  a  single  man  marching  to  join 
him  or  to  rescue  him.  Not  a  slave  joined  him  voluntarily ;  not 
one  lifted  his  hand  against  his  master  ;  all  were  anxious  to  return 
to  the  bosom  of  their  masters'  families. 

Atrocious  as  was  the  crime,  and  great  as  is  the  cause  I  have  to 
deplore  some  of  the  best  blood  shed,  that  crime  has  revealed  a 
state  of  fact  and  of  feeling,  both  among  our  own  population  and 
that  of  the  free  states,  on  which  our  eyes  ought  to  rest  with  satis 
faction  in  view  of  the  future. 

It  negatives  the  existence  of  any  conspiracy  against  our  peace 
in  the  free  states  of  the  Confederacy.  Neither  the  plan  nor  the 
execution  revealed  any  higher  intelligence  or  greater  power  be 
hind  the  crazy  enthusiasts  who  acted  in  the  tragedy.  To  lay  this 
blood  at  the  door  of  a  great  political  party  of  our  fellow-citizens, 
who  now  control  the  government  of  every  free  state  except  two, 
in  spite  of  the  indignant  denial  of  all  their  representatives  here, 
and  without  a  particle  of  proof,  in  fact,  is  not  reasonable.  It  is  to 
call  Dirk  Hatterick's  defense,  in  his  lair,  an  invasion  of  Scotland ! 
It  is  to  lay  the  bloody  deeds  of  Balfour  of  Burleigh  on  the  whole 
body  of  the  Protestants  in  Scotland ! 

But  the  keenness  with  which  gentlemen  feel  this  crime  against 
the  peace  of  a  slave  state  may  well  enable  them  to  appreciate  how 
the  more  aggravated  events  in  Kansas  inflamed  the  minds  of  men 
in  the  free  states,  and  fired  the  fanaticism  of  Brown  to  the  point 
of  bloody  revenge. 

That  men  and  women  of  like  mind,  in  whom,  on  one  subject, 
the  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  are  sadly  disordered,  sympathized 
with  the  convicts ;  that  some  papers  applauded  his  deed,  and  some 
pulpits  echoed  his  eulogy,  are  certainly  symptoms  of  no  sound 
state  of  morals  in  the  actors ;  but  they  are  of  no  political  signifi 
cance  in  the  populous  North.  On  this  floor  they  have  no  repre 
sentative.  That  bloody  type  of  fanaticism  is,  of  all  things,  most 
rare  among  the  Abolitionists ;  and  they  are  a  body  of  enthusiasts 
who  have  never,  to  my  knowledge,  had  ten  representatives  in  this 
hall.  But  to  sympathize  with  a  criminal,  to  pity  a  convict,  to 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  143 

consider  the  conviction  an  expiation,  and  the  execution  a  martyr 
dom,  is  too  common  at  this  day  to  excite  surprise  in  any  case. 
Even  with  the  ministers  of  religion,  the  ascent  to  the  scaffold  is 
Jacob's  ladder — the  gallows  is  the  very  gate  of  heaven ;  and  the 
old  formula  of  pax  et  misericordia  is  changed  for  one  in  the  spirit, 
if  not  in  the  words,  of  Edgeworth,  "  Son  of  St.  Louis,  ascend  to 
heaven !" 

I  dwell  on  these  matters  the  more,  because  they  have  been  made 
the  occasion  of  exaggerated  inferences  and  the  proofs  of  unfounded 
fears,  which  a  more  thorough  or  a  cooler  contemplation  of  the 
manifestations  of  thought  and  feeling  in  our  free  American  soci 
ety  will  dispel.  I  seek  for  signs  of  peace.  I  will  explore  every 
region  for  ground  of  returning  confidence.  I  think  there  is  no 
ground  for  the  excitement  which  has  prevailed.  I  think  the 
longer  gentlemen  look  at  the  facts,  they  will  the  more  surely  see 
that  their  feelings  led  them  to  extremes  which  they  will  ndt  be 
inclined  to  repeat. 

In  this  spirit,  I  feel  sure  they  will  now  be  inclined  to  accept  the 
formal  declaration  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  who  was  the  first 
candidate  of  the  Northern  opposition  for  speaker,  at  its  full  value 
and  scope: 

"I  say  now,  that  there  is  not  a  single  question  agitating  the  public  mind;  not  a 
single  topic  on  which  there  can  be  sectional  jealousy  or  sectional  controversy,  unless 
gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  thrust  such  subjects  on  us.  I  repeat,  not 
a  single  question." 

He  so  spoke  while  a  candidate ;  and  had  he  said  exactly  the 
opposite,  there  is  not  a  gentleman  on  the  administration  side  of 
the  House  who  would  not  have  rung  it  in  the  ears  of  his  constitu 
ents  as  the  authorized  and  formal  avowal  by  the  Eepublican  can 
didate  of  all  his  enemies  impute  to  his  party.  But,  being  a  dec 
laration  of  peace  instead  of  one  of  war,  shall  we  impeach  its  faith 
that  our  fears  may  not  subside?  or  ought  we  not  rather  to  read 
this  text — authoritatively  spoken  in  the  presence  of  the  gentlemen 
whose  candidate  he  was,  and  who  sanctioned  it  by  their  continued 
support  for  nearly  two  months  afterward — by  the  light  of  that 
magnificent  oration  of  his  distinguished  colleague  [Mr.  Corwin], 
which  won  the  heart  of  every  hearer  by  its  genial  and  compre 
hensive  spirit,  and  inaugurated  in  this  hall,  after  the  silence  of 
years,  the  example  of  great  parliamentary  eloquence ! 

These  declarations  are  reiterated  assurances  that  there  is  no  in- 


144  ON  THE  RESOLUTIONS  OF  CENSURE 

tention  of  invading  the  rights  or  quiet  of  any  slaveholding  state ; 
that  there  is  no  design  or  desire  to  tamper  with  or  trouble  slavery 
where  it  exists:  that  they  are  willing  to  let  the  subject  alone,  if 
others  are  willing  to  let  things  stand  as  they  are. 

Are  declarations  like  these  to  be  encountered  and  outweighed 
by  the  irresponsible  clamors  of  scattered  newspapers,  by  trumpery 
resolutions  at  excited  town  meetings,  or  by  the  ambiguous,  con 
tradictory,  and  shifting  platforms  hastily  contrived  for  an  emer 
gency,  and  then  forgotten  ?  It  was  one  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  profound 
and  sagacious  remarks,  that  there  was  a  strong  tendency  to  con 
found  the  machinery  of  parties  with  formal  bodies  known  to  the 
law,  and  to  treat  the  latter  like  the  former.  The  debates  of  this 
session  have  been  one  perpetual  illustration  of  its  truth.  They 
have  repeated  here  the  discussions  of  the  hustings,  dealt  here 
with  the  contrivances  of  party  warfare,  and  invoked  such  proofs 
to  rgpel  and  annul  the  formal  representations  of  the  constitutional 
representatives  of  the  people  touching  their  purposes. 

I  invoke  gentlemen  to  accept  the  declaration  of  the  legal  rep 
resentatives  touching  the  purposes  of  the  people  who  sent  him 
here  to  represent  them  in  that  very  thing.  Men  may  clamor, 
partisans  may  propose,  papers  may  print  a  thousand  things,  and 
no  one  care  to  explain  or  contradict  them ;  for  no  one  is  re 
sponsible  for  them.  Silence  is  no  consent ;  it  is  mere  indifference 
or  contempt.  It  is  the  conduct  of  the  representative  to  which 
the  people  look  when  they  would  know  if  they  were  truly  repre 
sented,  and  it  is  to  that  representative  we  should  look  when  we 
wish  to  know  the  spirit  and  policy  his  constituents  contemplate. 

There  will  always  be  more  or  less  of  that  vague  dissertation  on 
impractical  theories,  such  as  the  possibility  of  property  in  man, 
or  whether  slavery  be  hateful  to  God,  and  the  like,  and  those 
views  will  always  have,  as  they  have  heretofore  had,  their  eight 
or  ten  representatives  on  this  floor;  but  surely  we  can  afford  to 
leave  such  dissertations  unanswered,  and  without  an  answer  they 
will  soon  die  out.  Politically,  they  are  of  no  decisive  importance, 
and  involve  no  such  danger  as  to  keep  gentlemen  always  on  the 
alert  with  a  response.  But  the  records  display  the  purposes  of 
parties  in  the  government ;  and  if  we  there  investigate  the  signs 
of  the  times,  we  will  find,  I  think,  that  from  1855  to  this  time, 
there  has  been  no  single  bill  proposed  contemplating  a  change  in 
the  condition  of  affairs  touching  slavery  as  it  existed  before  the 


BY  THE  MARYLAND  LEGISLATURE.  145 

repeal  of  the  Missouri  line.  I  had  meant  to  develop  that  as  a 
word  of  peace,  but  I  have  not  time.  The  first  controversy  of 
the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  related  to  the  seat  of  the  delegate 
from  Kansas.  The  first  bill  was  to  repeal  the  laws  of  Kansas 
passed  by  the  Legislature  whose  legality  was  contested.  The 
next  was  Mr.  Dunn's  statesmanlike  bill  to  reorganize  the  Terri 
tory  of  Kansas.  The  third  was  to  admit  Kansas  under  the  Topeka 
Constitution.  -The  fourth  was  to  abolish  the  existing  laws,  and  to 
reorganize  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  without  one  word  of  slavery 
on  one  side  or  the  other ;  and  you  know  very  well,  gentlemen, 
that  at  the  last  Congress  no  proposition  was  entertained,  excepting 
the  question,  which  you  argued  and  which  we  argued,  whether  we 
had  a  right  to  remit  to  the  people  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  to 
be  decided  upon  by  the  people  who  were  to  be  bound  by  it.  Up 
to  this  time,  while  there  has  been  excitement  at  the  North  and  at 
the  South — while  gentlemen  have  made  offensive  speeches  here 
and  elsewhere,  there  has  been  no  measure  of  practical  legislation 
proposed  in  this  House  that  has  not  been  defensive  in  its  charac 
ter  ;  not  one  that  has  looked  beyond  retaining  the  Territories  free 
which  were  already  free. 

We  have,  then,  peace  before  us,  if  we  will  only  accept  it.  The 
free  states  ask  no  new  law.  Their  representatives  tell  us  there 
will  be  no  sectional  questions  mooted  by  them  unless  forced  on 
them  by  others ;  and  if  we  close  with  such  declarations  in  the 
spirit  of  the  declaration  of  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio, 
and  of  the  patriotic  speech  of  his  distinguished  colleague,  we  may 
banish  from  our  minds  those  "gorgons,  hydras,  and  chimeras 
dire,"  amid  whose  hideous  forms  we  have  so  long  pursued  our 
weary  way. 

K 


SPEECH  BEFOEE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 
FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF 
MARYLAND. 

CONGRESS  rose  on  the  25th  of  June,  1860,  and  all  parties  prepared  for 
the  great  struggle  in  the  approaching  election  for  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  excitement  was  greater  than  ever  before  throughout  the 
country.  The  threats  made  in  1856,  by  the  Southern  States- rights 
Democracy,  that  the  election  of  a  "  Black  Republican"  and  sectional 
"Abolitionist"  should  be  the  signal  for  the  secession  of  the  South  and 
the  disruption  of  the  Federal  Union,  were  renewed  with  still  more  fre 
quency  and  violence.  The  united  and  indivisible  Democracy,  after 
wrangling  confusion  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  unite  upon  a  nomination 
at  Charleston  in  May,  had  hopelessly  split,  and  separated  into  the  fac 
tions  headed  respectively  by  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Breckinridge.  Each 
of  these  fragments  claimed  to  be  the  whole ;  and  each,  as  the  exclusive 
and  infallible  authority,  denounced  and  excommunicated  the  other  half. 

The  Convention  of  the  National  Union  and  American  party  met  at 
Baltimore,  and  efforts  were  made  to  procure  the  nomination  of  Judge 
Bates,  of  Missouri,  with  a  view  to  his  acceptance  also  by  the  Republic 
ans.  But  the  candidates  named  were  John  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  with  Ed 
ward  Everett  for  the  vice-presidency.  It  was  afterward  known  that  this 
position  was  assigned  to  Mr.  Everett  against  his  wishes,  and  he  was  with 
difficulty  restrained  from  publicly  disavowing  it. 

At  Chicago  the  Republican  Convention  came  together  in  the  highest 
spirits.  It  seemed  now,  after  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  iniquities,  and 
the  openly-avowed  intention  of  the  Southern  and  Democratic  parties  to 
carry  the  blessings  of  slavery  into  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States, 
as  if  the  defeat  of  the  party  in  1856  had  only  rallied  the  resolution  and 
moral  sense  of  the  North  and  West  to  the  determination  that  the  limit 
of  endurance  had  been  reached.  It  was  confidently  expected  that  the 
nomination  there  would  naturally  fall  upon  Ex-governor  William  II. 
Seward,  the  senator  from  New  York,  who  had  formed,  organized,  and  led 
the  great  party  of  national  defense  in  the  North  and  West  against  the 
aggressions  of  the  pro-slavery  Democracy.  His  friends  thought  him  en 
titled  to  this  nomination  by  great  ability,  by  long  experience  in  the  pub 
lic  service,  by  the  eminent  positions  he  had  held,  and  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  its  acknowledged  chief,  and  the  leader  of  its  success. 


SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS,  ETC.  147 

But,  through  causes  not  necessary  to  be  related  here,  the  choice  fell 
upon  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  a  man  then  comparatively  unknown 
outside  of  his  own  state,  but  who  was  widely  popular  there,  and  who 
had  gained  great  reputation  at  home  by  his  contests  with  Mr.  Douglas. 
To  him  was  added  Mr.  Hamlin,  of  Maine,  as  candidate  for  the  vice-pres 
idency. 

And  now  the  contest  began.  In  Maryland  all  four  parties  had  some 
supporters ;  but  it  was  soon  evident  that  the  question  in  this  state  would 
be  between  Mr.  Breckinridge,  as  the  representative  of  the  extreme  South 
ern  and  States-rights  party,  and  Mr.  Bell,  who  was  a  Southern  Whig, 
opposed  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bills,  and  of  that  party  also  which, 
although  in  fact  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  wished  to  be  "  neu 
tral,*'  arid  was  forced  to  be  silent  on  that  question. 

Mr.  Davis  took  an  active  part  in  the  campaign,  and  spoke  before  the 
electors  of  the  Fourth  Congressional  District  of  Maryland  as  follows : 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE, — I  regret  that  absence  on 
public  duty  has  prevented  my  being  with  you  to  celebrate  the 
first  note  of  triumph  over  the  dissolution  of  the  Democratic 
party. 

When  the  resolution  of  the  American  members  of  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Maryland,  which  has  just  been  read  to  you,  was  passed, 
there  was  a  Democratic  party ;  one  which  was  an  "  Old  Bruiser" 
(laughter),  as  Mr.  Thompson  described  Great  Britain,  roaming 
about  the  world,  thrashing  whomsoever  it  pleased,  and  shaking 
its  fist  in  the  face  of  all  creation,  domineering  over  every  body, 
impudent,  intolerant,  and  tyrannical.  Now,  the  Democratic  party 
is  disputed  between  the  warring  elements,  headed  by  Mr.  Douglas 
and  by  Mr.  Breckinridge.  Who  will  have  the  honor  of  burying 
the  body  is  not  for  us  to  determine.  That  will  be  left  to  which 
ever  of  these  two  fragments  shall  turn  out  to  be  the  stronger  at 
the  end  of  this  contest,  and  in  that  way  to  arrogate  to  itself  to  be 
the  sole,  united,  undivided,  universal,  national,  omnipotent  Demo 
cratic  party.  (Laughter.)  Oar  Democratic  brethren  last  year, 
at  Frederick,  passed  a  resolution  saying  that  upon  the  integrity 
of  the  Democratic  party  depended  the  integrity  of  the  Union. 
The  party  is  gone  —  where  is  the  Union  ?  (Laughter.)  That 
where  went  its  fragments  must  likewise  go  the  fragments  of  the 
Union ;  and  in  accordance  with  the  unfulfilled  but  anxiously-de 
sired  prophecy,  one  large  portion  of  that  party  is  now  engaged 
perpetually  in  prophesying  that  if  they  happen  to  be  defeated, 
that  result  will  still  follow.  Gentlemen,  it  is  matter  of  profound 


148  SPEECH  BEFOEE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

gratitude  in  my  mind  that,  whatever  else  turn  up,  there  is  an 
end  of  that  intolerable  domination  (applause) — than  which  none, 
without  exception,  can  be  Worse ;  than  which  none  can  be  more 
inimical  to  the  peace,  the  happiness,  the  integrity,  and  the  great 
interests  of  this  country ;  than  which  none  can  ever  push  this 
'country  nearer  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice  of  disunion ;  and  the 
death  of  which  confers  more  strength  upon  it  than  the  death  of 
all  other  political  organizations  that  have  ever  existed.  (Great 
applause.) 

It  is  time  there  should  be  a  change.  Maryland  has  thought  so 
long,  and  she  struggled  long  and  heroically.  She  struggled  under 
the  heroic  Scott,  and  failed.  She  struggled  under  the  conserva 
tive  and  statesmanlike  Fillmore  (great  applause),  and  failed — 
failed,  not  by  any  fault  of  hers — failed,  because  there  were  "  weak 
knees"  elsewhere ;  because  men  were  afraid  to  meet  the  Demo 
cratic  party  on  its  own  ground,  and  hold  it  responsible  for  its  own 
principles.  Maryland  alone,  of  all  the  states,  kept  her  banner 
floating  in  the  breeze,  and  stands  to  this  day  with  her  escutcheon 
more  brilliant  than  any  other  in  the  United  States  (applause)  for 
heroic  devotion,  for  unshaken  pluck,  for  perfect  resolution  to  do 
as  she  pleases,  and  leave  the  rest  of  the  country  to  do  as  it  pleases. 
(Applause.)  And  now,  under  another  leader,  equally  acceptable, 
of  wider  public  experience,  of  old  Whig  antecedents,  holding  the 
most  intimate  relations  to  that  great  statesman  to  whom  Mary 
land  was  always  only  too  proud  to  give  her  voice  ;  first  in  ever}r 
department  of  the  public  service,  true  upon  every  great  question 
that  touches  the  real  interests  of  the  country,  Maryland  places  the 
names  of  John  Bell  and  Edward  Everett  before  her  people.  (Tre 
mendous  applause.)  And  I  take  it  that,  deeply  as  she  feels  the 
necessity  of  a  change,  just  so  deeply  and  firmly  is  she  resolved 
that  for  them,  in  November,  her  vote  shall  be  cast.  (Applause.) 
Whatever  timid  men  may  do  elsewhere,  whatever  coalitionists 
and  fusionists  may  do  elsewhere,  whatever  doubt  and  hesitation 
may  drive  other  people  to  do,  let  what  will  come,  the  vote  of  Ma 
ryland  will,  in  November,  be  cast  for  these  two  men ;  and  then 
Maryland  will  have  discharged  her  duty,  and  her  skirts  will  be 
free  from  the  responsibility  of  whatever  may  occur. 

I  know,  fellow-citizens,  the  deep  feeling  which  pervades  you 
upon  the  condition  of  the  national  government.  I  know  that 
you,  as  I  do,  think  that  the  most  important  of  all  things  is  a 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       149 

change  in  the  government ;  and,  having  come  to  that  conclusion, 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  do  our  best  to  effect  that  change,  in  such 
manner  as  shall  best  secure  the  peace  and  the  happiness  of  the 
country ;.  but  that  in  no  contingency,  under  no  combination  of  cir 
cumstances,  for  no  purpose,  are  we  to  aid,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  continuing  in  power  those  whom  we  now  have  a  chance  of 
ejecting. 

Why  is  a  change  so  necessary  ?  Is  that  Democratic  party  fit 
to  be  trusted  with  the  power  of  the  sword,  which  has  allowed  in 
nocent  and  honest  American  citizens  to  be  shot  down  in  the 
streets  of  Washington  by  American  soldiers?  ("No,  no.")  Is 
it  fit  to  be  trusted  with  the  sword,  which  has  converted  the  army 
of  the  United  States  into  a  posse  comitatus  to  enforce  the  service 
of  process,  and  to  subject  the  people  of  the  Territories  to  military 
rule  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  trusted  with  the  power  of  the  sword 
who  have  wielded  it  so  weakly  in  Utah,  so  illegally  in  Paraguay  ? 
Are  they  fit  to  be  trusted  with  the  power  of  the  sword  who,  for 
getful  of  all  the  obligations  of  international  law,  have  fired  into 
the  neutral  vessels  in  or  near  the  fort  of  Yera  Cruz — an  act  so 
flagrantly  illegal,  that  the  courts  of  this  country  had  to  discharge 
the  captured  vessels  as  not  legal  prize  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  trust 
ed  with  the  power  of  the  sword  who  have  sought  at  the  hands  of 
Congress  authority  to  use  it,  "  whenever,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
President,"  American  citizens  may  be  injured,  or  American  in 
terests  may  in  his  discretion  require  it,  abroad,  against  any  of  our 
South  American  republican  sisters  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  sword  who  desire  the  privilege,  and  have  endeavored  to 
get  it,  of  protecting  the  transit  routes,  without  the  authority  of 
Congress  given  at  the  particular  time,  but  according  to  the  mere 
will  and  humor  of  the  President  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  power  of  the  sword  who  have  recommended  to  Congress 
that  the  President  should  be  allowed,  in  time  of  profound  peace, 
without  any  serious  provocation,  to  take  military  possession  of, 
and  hold  for  an  indefinite  time,  two  great  states  of  the  Mexican 
republic — Chihuahua  and  Sonora?  ("No,  never.")  Why,  my 
friends,  we  had  better  at  once  give  the  whole  power  of  war  to  the 
President.  They  have  forgotten  here  all  the  limitations  upon  the 
executive  power,  and  they  are  grasping  at  the  right  to  wield  the 
sword  at  the  pleasure  of  the  President,  irrespective  of  the  will  of 
the  people,  whenever  or  wherever  it  may  suit  his  discretion. 


150  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

Are  they  fit  to  be  trusted  with  the  direction  of  the  finances  and 
the  commercial  interests  of  the  country  who,  in  time  of  profound 
peace,  have  ran  up  a  debt  of  some  forty  millions  of  dollars  for  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  the  government,  rather  than  vary  the  tariff 
to  supply  its  wants  j  who  have  swollen  its  expenses  during  one 
year  to  nearly  or  over  eighty  millions  of  dollars ;  who  thought 
that  the  crisis  of  1857  wqs  a  passing  breeze,  that  ruffled  the  sur 
face  merely  of  our  mercantile  transactions — that  terrific  storm 
which  turned  up  from  its  depths  the  sea  of  commerce,  and  left 
strewn  all  along  the  coast  of  this  republic  the  fragments  of  our 
greatest  fortunes  ? 

Are  they  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  administration  of  the  gov 
ernment  ?  Eead  the  Fort  Snelling  Eeport.  Eead  the  Willett's 
Point  Eeport.  Eead  the  Covode  Committee's  Eeport.  Eead  Mr. 
Sherman's  report  on  the  navy  yards  and  their  corruptions.  Eead 
of  the  political  brokerage  for  contracts.  Eead  of  the  distribution 
among  members  of  Congress  of  the  patronage  of  the  navy  yard  in 
Brooklyn,  divided  up  between  the  Democratic  Eepresentatives 
from  the  city  of  New  York.  Eead  of  the  navy  yard  at  Philadel 
phia  made  a  receptacle  of  illegal  voters  to  return  Democratic 
members  to  Congress.  Eead  of  the  reckless  use  of  public  money 
in  the  elections.  Eead  of  the  President  himself  directing  the  dis 
tribution  of  the  surplus  compensation  from  one  of  the  printing 
-departments,  for  party  purposes  among  party  papers,  instead  of 
recommending  that  the  ratio  of  compensation  should  be  reduced 
by  Congress. 

Is  any  party  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  government  which  not 
only  thus  abuses  its  powers,  but  asserts  its  freedom  from  con 
gressional  investigation  into  acts  so  detrimental  to  the  public 
service  ? 

Fellow-citizens,  are  these  gentlemen  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the 
government  of  a  free  republic  after  their  conduct  in  Kansas,  where 
they  attempted  to  force  by  violence  upon  the  people  a  Constitu 
tion  that  they  utterly  repelled  and  abhorred ;  then  attempted  to 
force  through  the  two  houses  of  Congress  a  law  to  make  that  Con 
stitution  the  Constitution  of  Kansas,  when  its  people  had  utterly 
repudiated  it ;  and  then,  when  Kansas  adopted  another  Constitu 
tion,  allowed  it  to  lie  for  months  upon  the  table  of  Congress  with 
out  its  having  been  taken  up  for  action  in  the  Senate  ?  Are  they 
fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  government  who  could 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND. 

so  far  forget  the  interests  of  the  great  agricultural  classes  as  to 
allow  to  be  vetoed  (after  voting  against  it  in  the  lower  House)  the 
Agricultural  College  Bill  of  Mr,  Morrill,  of  Vermont,  which  would 
have  given  the  State  of  Maryland  $150,000  to  endow  her  new 
agricultural  college  ?  Are  they  fit  to  be  allowed  to  take  care  of 
the  public  interests  who  prefer  to  go  on  borrowing  money  day 
after  day,  and  year  after  year,  rather  than  remodel  the  tariff  so  as 
to  protect  all  the  varied  interests  of  American  industry  ?  (Great 
applause.)  Even  Mr.  Douglas,  in  his  campaign  through  Pennsyl 
vania,  found  it  essential  to  make  a  slight  reference  to  the  condi 
tion  of  the  revenue  laws  and  the  tariff  as  a  condition  precedent  to 
asking  a  vote  in  that  great  State.  And  yet  the  Democratic  ma 
jority  in  the  Senate  allowed  a  tariff  bill,  passed  by  an  overwhelm 
ing  vote  of  the  lower  House,  to  lie  on  their  table  for  weeks  and 
weeks,  at  any  moment  of  which  they  could  have  taken  it  up  and 
passed  it,  and  thus  restored  to  life  and  energy  all  the  great  mate 
rial  interests  of  the  American  republic.  But  there  it  rests,  and 
there  it  is  likely  to  rest. 

Fellow-citizens,  these  are  the  reasons  why  we  want  a  change  of 
government.  These  are  the  reasons  why  we  want  to  oust  from 
position  those  who  have  abused  or  neglected  properly  to  exercise 
the  powers  of  the  government,  and  to  place  some  gentleman  there 
who  will,  in  these  respects  at  least,  restore  the  government  to  its 
original  basis ;  restore  to  the  commerce  of  the  country  the  protec 
tion  of  the  Federal  government ;  give  us  the  laws  which  are  essen 
tial  to  the  prosperity  of  the  industry  of  the  country;  execute  that 
great  and  necessary  improvement,  the  Pacific  Eailroad  ;  reinstate 
the  system  of  improvements  of  rivers  and  of  harbors  throughout 
the  whole  country ;  reorganize  and  recreate  the  navy,  which  has 
been  allowed  to  rot  to  pieces  under  their  neglect  (applause);  place 
the  army  upon  a  footing  that  will  enable  it  to  be  the  nucleus 
around  which  the  volunteer  sons  of  the  republic  may  rally  in  the 
event  of  any  great  public  necessity ;  sweep  out  from  office  the 
flocks  of  "  unclean  birds"  that  have  there  been  nestling  for  the 
last  eight  years  (tremendous  applause),  and  put  in  their  places 
men  who  will  honestly  discharge  their  duties ;  men  who  will  hon 
estly  devote  their  time  to  the  public  interests ;  men  who  will  cease 
to  strive  over  the  matters  which  now  divide  the  Democratic  party, 
and  will  allow  the  voice  of  the  people,  calling  on  the  government 
for  the  protection  and  aid  to  their  industry  which  it  requires,  to 
be  heard  and  answered. 


152  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

In  my  judgment,  that  never  can  be  so  long  as  the  Democratic 
party  is  allowed  to  remain  in  power.  So  long  as  the  Democratic 
party  shall  remain  in  power,  so  long  there  will  be  nothing  but 
one  eternal  howl  on  the  Negro  Question  to  keep  themselves  in. 
There  is  no  remedy  for  that  old  conflict  except  turning  them  out, 
neck  and  heels,  "  to  get  an  airing,"  as  a  Virginia  friend  said ;  and, 
I  take  it,  when  they  are  turned  out,  there  will  be  a  rest  on  that 
subject. 

Now,  gentlemen,  we  in  Maryland,  and  our  true  political  friends 
every  where,  are  doing  what  in  them  lies  to  give  to  John  Bell  the 
glory  of  doing  this.  We  make  this  effort,  perhaps,  under  adverse 
circumstances.  "We  have  encountered  adverse  circumstances  be 
fore.  We  are  not  to  be  discouraged  by  any  odds  that  stand  before 
us.  We  mean  to  cast  our  votes  and  to  get  our  friends  to  cast 
their  votes  to  secure,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  that  great  result.  We 
trust  that  the  division  of  the  Democratic  party  may  enable  us  to 
take  great  steps  toward  the  accomplishment  of  that  high  pur 
pose.  We  trust  that  they  will  be  broken  down  in  a  great  portion, 
if  not  in  every  one,  of  the  Southern  States.  We  trust  that  the 
State  organizations  will  be  transferred  from  the  hands  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  to  the  hands  of  their  opponents,  and  that  again  there 
will  be  an  opportunity  to  hear  the  voices  of  Whig  senators  from 
the  South  debating  in  the  Senate,  as  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Berrien  de 
bated  in  former  days.  (Great  applause.) 

Fellow-citizens,  there  are  before  the  country  four  candidates  for 
the  presidency.  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to-night,  without 
indulging  in  any  bitterness  toward  either  gentleman  or  either 
part}^,  to  the  real  political  opinions  of  all  these  four  gentlemen, 
and  I  beseech  your  attention.  I  rise  here  this  night  not  to  add 
bitterness  to  any  controversy.  I  will  join  my  voice  to  no  portion 
of  any  party,  the  tendency  of  which  is  to  widen  existing  diversi 
ties,  to  indurate  existing  prejudices,  to  influence  existing  passions, 
to  mislead  the  public  from  the  truth  in  order  to  gain  a  political 
advantage ;  but,  stating  every  thing  fairly  and  fully,  I  shall  leave 
you  to  form  your  own  judgment  as  to  how  far  different  represent 
ations  are  well  founded,  as  to  how  far  a  different  policy  comports 
with  the  interests  and  peace  of  the  republic,  as  to  how  far  partisan 
influences  or  personal  ambition  may  have  tended  to  mislead  gen 
tlemen,  or  to  cause  them  to  mislead  the  public.  I  desire  to  mis 
represent  nobody ;  and  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  state  whatever  can 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       153 

be  stated,  fairly  and  freely,  to  set  the  opinions  of  every  one  of 
these  four  gentlemen  honestly  and  truly  before  yon,  and  then  pos 
sibly  we  shall  be  able  to  form  a  judgment  of  the  propriety  or  im 
propriety  of  certain  modes  of  conducting  the  canvass,  which  I  have 
observed  in  the  newspapers  to  have  become  very  common.  It 
has  not  been  my  fortune  heretofore  in  this  canvass  to  have  the 
privilege  of  addressing  any  of  my  fellow-citizens  here  or  else 
where.  I  have  been  engaged  in  arduous  public  duty  assigned  to 
me  by  those  in  authority,  and  I  have  had  no  opportunity  even  to 
attend  a  political  meeting  elsewhere  ;  but  I  have  had  my  eye  upon 
the  current  of  public  affairs.  I  have  had  my  ear  open  to  the 
echoes  of  what  has  been  said  elsewhere ;  and  while  I  allow  no  one 
to  speak  for  me  either  here  or  elsewhere  (great  applause),  and 
while  I  regard  no  insinuations  from  any  quarter  ("  that's  right"), 
I  likewise  am  never  afraid  to  say  exactly  what  I  think  upon  pub 
lic  affairs.  I  am  no  boy  in  politics,  that  I  should  be  afraid  to 
make  a  declaration  of  what  I  think.  I  am  no  child  of  yesterday, 
that  I  should  be  frightened  by  popular  clamor  out  of  telling  my 
constituents  what  I  know  to  be  for  their  good.  I  am  not  eaten 
up  by  any  personal  ambition  that  would  lead  me  to  hide,  in  any 
particular,  any  opinion  of  mine.  (Great  applause.)  I  have  met 
the  clamor  of  Democrats,  in  their  highest  rage,  in  the  Hall  of  Rep- 
resentatives,  when  I  dared  to  do  what  other  men  did  not  choose 
to  do  (vociferous  cheering),  and  I  am  not  afraid,  before  you  my 
constituents,  to  avow  that  act,  and  to  say  that,  were  it  to  go  over 
again,  I  would  repeat  it.  (Renewed  cheering.)  I  am  not  afraid 
here,  this  evening,  before  my  fellow-citizens  of  Baltimore,  to  say 
that  I  do  not  hesitate  now  to  proclaim  before  you  all  my  opinions 
with  reference  to  this  pending  controversy.  If  it  is  supposed  that 
any  amount  of  intimidation,  or  threat,  or  insinuation  can  make  rne 
say  that  I  am  willing  to  make  any  combination  with  a  Democrat, 
to  aid  a  Democrat  to  his  election,  I  tell  them  they  mistake  the 
man.  (Great  applause.)  I  will  do  every  thing  that  is  honorable 
to  elect  John  Bell ;  I  will  do  nothing  to  prevent  the  defeat  of  a 
Democrat  by  any  body.  (Renewed  applause.)  Aid  the  Demo 
crats  !  (laughter) — so  courteous — so  forbearing — so  respectful — so 
considerate  of  the  "  Know-Nothing"  party !  (laughter) — so  ready 
to  coalesce  with  "  the  enemies  of  civil  and  religious  liberty !" 
(laughter) — so  ready  to  shake  hands  with  "bloody  midnight  as 
sassins  !"  (laughter) — so  content  to  accept  our  votes ;  so  unwilling 


154  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

to  reciprocate  the  compliment,  as  in  the  great  contest  of  Fuller, 
Banks,  and  Eichardson  (applause) — so  truthful  in  their  represent 
ations  of  my  position  in  that  great  controversy,  and  so  considerate 
in  their  expressions  of  opinion  touching  my  conduct  in  the  last 
great  controversy  !  Of  course,  gentlemen,  I  am  a  Christian  man, 
and  I  ought  to  coalesce  with  them.  (Laughter.)  No ;  they  may 
get  along  as  they  can.  I  see,  gentlemen,  and  you  see,  every  where 
in  the  newspapers,  "  the  wing"  of  the  Democratic  party  led  by  Mr. 
Breckinridge,  and  "  the  wing"  of  the  Democratic  party  led  by  Mr. 
Douglas;  but  there  is  no  "body"  of  it  spoken  of  any  where. 
These  "  wings"  are  good  for  flight,  but  poor  for  battle.  The  claws 
are  not  there.  The  beak  is  not  there.  They  are  powerless — the 
shadow  of  what  they  were.  Now  this  great  Csesar,  in  its  most 
miserable  estate,  shaking  with  its  last  ague,  cries  out, 

"Like  a  sick  girl, 
Give  me  some  drink,  Titinius  !" 

(laughter);  but,  I  take  it,  there  will  be  some  one  else  who  will 
minister  to  its  thirst  in  its  dying  hour  than  myself  or  my  political 
friends. 

But,  gentlemen — to  come  back  to  plain  matters — let  us  consider 
calmly  the  condition  in  which  we  are.  Unfortunately,  the  great 
body  of  the  opposition  to  the  Democratic  party,  which  concurs  in 
every  principle  that  I  have  stated  to  you,  which  is  in  favor  of  every 
measure  that  I  have  indicated  as  necessary  for  the  public  weal,  the 
representatives  of  which  have  struggled  through  long  months  in 
Congress,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing 
these  things,  have  stood  together  in  exposing  the  corruptions  of 
the  administration,  and  in  rebuking  its  high  functionaries  by  votes 
of  the  House — that  great  body  of  the  opposition,  representing  the 
great  body  of  the  once  powerful  and  dominant  "Whig  party,  is  di 
vided,  like  the  Democratic  party,  from  top  to  bottom ;  and  this  is 
the  great  misfortune  of  the  times.  "Whose  fault  is  this  ?  I  shall 
not  stop  to  inquire.  Whose  misfortune?  That  of  all  of  us. 
There  are  those  who  seek  to  widen  this  division.  There  are  oth 
ers  who  know  that  no  opposition  administration  can  be  powerful, 
enduring,  and  national,  unless  it  combines  both  these  elements  in 
its  support.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  shall  be  President,  how  can  he  carry 
on  the  government  without  the  support  of  the  opposition  repre 
sentatives  from  the  South,  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  lower  House  ? 
If  John  Bell  shall  be  President,  how  can  he  carry  on  the  govern- 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       155 

ment  with  only  twenty -three  members  in  the  House  and  with  two 
senators  to  support  him  ? 

Agreeing  upon  every  measure  of  public  policy,  agreeing  upon 
almost  every  vote  they  will  be  called  upon  to  pass  in  either  House, 
touching  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  how  will  it  be  possible 
for  either  of  these  gentlemen  to  carry  on  the  administration,  with 
the  friends  of  the  great  measures  that  they  both  must  advocate,  to 
which  both  are  committed,  in  virtue  of  having  been  Old  Whigs, 
as  well  as  in  virtue  of  their  present  avowals,  divided  among  them 
selves  ?  "Will  any  body  tell  me  ? 

I  say,  then,  if  there  is  one  thing  to  be  struggled  for  more  than 
another,  it  is  the  obliteration  of  the  lines  of  demarcation ;  it  is  the 
bringing  together  men  who  think  alike  upon  the  great  public  in 
terests  of  the  country ;  it  is,  as  far  as  possible,  to  push  into  the 
background,  to  silence  forever,  to  put  out  of  men's  view,  and  (if 
God  will  only  allow  it)  out  of  men's  thoughts,  the  only  element  of 
distraction  of  a  national  or  party  character,  which  prevents  the 
organization  of  a  great  and  powerful  party,  which  can  hold  the 
government  for  a  generation,  if  only  the  present  causes  of  division 
can  ever  be  gotten  rid  of. 

There  are  those  who  wish  to  widen  the  division.  My  sense  of 
public  duties  require  me,  first  of  all,  to  see  how  wide  it  is — whether 
it  be  a  division  of  principle  too  wide  to  be  bridged,  or  a  division 
occasioned  by  temporary  passions,  and  susceptible  of  adjustment, 
consistently  with  the  honor  and  interest  of  every  section.  And 
if  so,  then  I  am  for  that  party  really  of  the  Union  and  of  the  Con 
stitution — a  party  united  and  powerful  over  the  whole  republic — 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  country — which  will  inflict 
wrong  or  insult  on  the  sentiments,  the  feelings,  the  rights,  the  in 
terests  of  none.  And  I  say  that  now,  instead  of  attempting  to  ex 
cite  the  passions,  arouse  the  hostility,  and  cast  violent  imputations 
upon  one  great  portion  of  the  opposition  now  struggling  against 
the  Democratic  party  in  the  North,  it  would  be  wiser  not  to  mis 
lead  the  people  too  far,  because  there  may  be  contingencies  in 
which  to  have  misled  them  may  be  dangerous.  You  can  easily 
arouse  the  passions  of  men ;  but  when  their  .passions  are  aroused, 
it  is  very  difficult  to  calm  them.  You  can  easily  excite  the  fears 
of  men ;  but  when  their  fears  are  excited,  they  are  not  in  a  condi 
tion  for  calm  conduct.  You  can  very  easily  lash  them  into  a 
fury,  but  then  you  can  not  control  them.  The  representations  as 


156  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS' OF  THE 

to  the  course  of  the  canvass  in  certain  portions  of  the  United 
States  do,  in  my  judgment,  in  certain  contingencies  which  are 
within  the  bounds  of  possibility,  at  least  as  the  end  of  this  political 
contest,  tend  to  create  a  state  of  feeling  in  the  public  mind  which 
may  prove  beyond  the  control  of  those  who  have  lashed  it  into 
fury.  To  you,  my  fellow-citizens,  to  whom  I  am  responsible  for 
my  public  conduct,  and  to  whom  I  am  bound  to  tell  the  whole 
truth  touching  the  affairs  of  the  country,  I  desire  to  say  what  I 
think  with  reference  both  to  the  individuals  and  the  parties  that 
are  struggling  for  the  supremacy. 

Yielding  to  none  in  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  candidate 
whom  my  friends  support,  and  whom  I  shall  support — earnestly, 
and  heartily,  and  resolutely — I  am  determined  here,  as  I  have 
been  resolutely  in  the  House  of  Congress,  never  for  an  instant  to 
allow  myself  to  join  in  a  clamor  which  I  know  to  be  baseless, 
which  I  believe  to  be  in  a  great  measure  dishonest,  and  which  I 
am  convinced  is  dangerous  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country — 
(applause) — however  certain  portions  of  the  opposition  may,  for 
local  and  temporary  purposes,  find  it  to  their  interest  to  exagger 
ate  the  points  of  diversity,  to  keep  up  the  sectional  temper,  to 
blacken  their  political  opponents  with  virulent  abuse,  to  make  the 
people  of  the  South  believe  that  the  North  is  filled  with  John 
Browns,  to  make  them  believe  that  the  Eepublicans  are  not  merely 
a  political  party,  differing  from  you  as  the  Democrats  differ  from  each 
oilier,  but  that  they  are  traitors  to  the  Constitution,  hostile  to  your 
interests,  bent  on  servile  insurrection,  endeavoring  to  invade  your 
State  institutions,  and  make  your  families  insecure  and  your  lives 
a  torment — that  is  a  policy  to  which  I  will  never  give  my  assent, 
and  against  which  I  have  struggled  always.  It  is  a  misrepresent 
ation  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in  more  than  one  half  of  this  coun 
try,  against  which  I  feel  called  upon,  by  my  highest  duty  here  be 
fore  you  this  night,  face  to  face,  as  I  did  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  when  responding  to  the  impertinent  resolutions  of  the 
Maryland  Legislature  (great  applause),  to  declare  that  they  who 
attempt  to  excite  these  passions  are  doing  it  for  no  patriotic  pur 
poses.  They  are  doing  it  to  facilitate  a  party  triumph.  They 
are  doing  it  to  blacken  and  render  hateful  their  fellow-citizens  in 
the  eyes  of  their  fellow-citizens.  They  are  playing  into  the  hands 
of  that  element  of  disunion  which  exists  at  the  South,  and  which 
rejoices  in  having  the  chorus  of  "  disunion  if  Lincoln  is  elected" 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       157 

rung  all  over  the  South,  because,  if  the  contingency  should  occur, 
they  can  appeal  to  men's  pride  and  their  consistency  to  precipitate 
them  into  a  revolution. 

Now  I  say  that  these  representations  are  misrepresentations  of 
the  condition  of  affairs  at  the  North.  What  is  the  great  point  of 
diversity  ?  In  Congress,  after  the  election  of  speaker,  there  was 
scarcely  a  whisper  about  "John  Brown."  He  had  served  his 
purpose  and  was  dropped.  There  was  scarcely  a  whisper  about 
"  disunion."  It  would  serve  no  purpose.  On  the  other  side,  the 
talk  among  the  men  of  the  opposition,  from  the  South  as  well  as 
from  the  North,  was  of  the  corruptions  of  the  government,  of  the 
necessity  of  a  change,  of  the  anxiety  of  getting  somebody  who 
could  accomplish  that  change.  Now  the  tone  seems  to  be  differ 
ent.  What  are  the  opinions  which  prevent  their  acting  together  ? 
Not  that  a  man's  opinions  are  at  all  the  criteria  by  which  we  are 
to  be  guided  in  voting  for  him  or  refusing  to  vote  for  him.  If 
that  were  the  case  we  never  could  elect  a  President,  because  there 
is  no  one  with  whom  we  concur  in  every  particular.  We  must 
guide  ourselves  according  to  the  policy  we  know  they  are  going  to 
pursue,  and  allow  their  abstract  opinions  to  remain  abstract  opin 
ions,  unless  they  are  called  into  active  practice,  and  are  matters 
directly  in  issue.  I  say  that,  at  this  moment,  according  to  the 
avowal  of  every  party  not  Democratic — mark  the  limitation — ac 
cording  to  the  avowal  of  every  party  excepting  the  two  wings  of 
the  Democratic  party,  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  is  ABSOLUTELY 
SETTLED  if  the  Democracy  will  let  it  alone.  In  the  language  of 
Mr.  Webster,  "  There  is  not  a  foot  of  territory  within  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  United  States,  the  condition  of  which,  as  slave  or  free, 
is  not  now  irrevocably  settled  by  some  law ;  and  if  that  be  the 
case,  there  are  some  misrepresentations  afloat  which  require  to  be 
corrected. 

First,  gentlemen,  what  are  the  opinions  of  the  opposing  candi 
dates — Mr.  Breckinridge,  Mr.  Douglas,  Mr.  Lincoln — upon  this 
great  question  ?  Fortunately,  the  gentleman  who  prepared  the 
Address  of  the  Union  Party,  my  personal  and  political  friend, 
Mr.  Boteler,  of  Yirginia,  than  whom  there  is  no  sounder  Whig, 
no  more  chivalrous  gentleman,  no  more  earnest  friend  of  John 
Bell,  no  more  pertinacious,  undying  enemy  of  the  Democratic 
party  existing  (applause),  has  in  one  portion  of  that  admirable 
address  used  these  words:  "The  more  conservative  portion  of 


158  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

the  Kepublican  party  have  tacitly  acquiesced  in  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  in  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
in  the  right  to  carry  slaves  from  one  State  to  another."  That  in 
dicates  that  the  whole  of  that  wide  field  is  covered  and  out  of 
controversy.  You  are  safe,  then,  at  home.  You  are  safe  in  carry 
ing,  if  you  choose  to  carry,  your  slaves  to  Mississippi,  to  sell  them. 
You  are  safe  from  the  example  of  freedom  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia.  There  is  nothing  of  that  kind  open  at  all.  When  he 
said  they  had  "  acquiesced  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,"  he  did  not 
state  it  strongly  enough,  because  the  statements  are,  from  Mr. 
Corwin  last  winter  in  the  House,  and  others,  Mr.  Lincoln  himself 
included,  that  it  must  be  executed,  "  not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and 
honestly."  (Applause.)  Does  any  body  take  the  trouble  to  re 
peat  these  sentiments  when  talking  about  politics  before  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland?  Then  my  friend  Mr.  Boteler  proceeds  in 
another  sentence  to  say  this : 

"  At  this  moment  no  one  will  question  the  correctness  of  the  statement  that  there 
is  not  a  foot  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  the  condition  of  which  in  refer 
ence  to  slavery  is  not  already  fixed  by  law,  and  there  is  no  place  within  the  federal 
domain  upon  which  the  abstract  theories  of  the  extremists  of  either  section,  in  re 
gard  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Territories  or  its  introduction  into  them, 
can  be  practically  applied." 

That  is  what  I  have  been  saying  before  you,  people  of  the 
Fourth  Congressional  District,  for  five  long  years,  and  there  is  no 
question  now  open  except  such  as  the  Democracy  may  see  fit  to 
open,  that  the  way  to  settle  the  Slavery  Question  is  to  be  silent  on 
it;  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted,  it  is  with  me  a  matter  of  pro 
found  regret,  that  my  friend  Mr.  Boteler,  in  the  residue  of  that 
document,  should  have  allowed  himself  to  go  into  a  discussion  as 
to  the  responsibilities  for  the  opening  of  the  question,  and  to  lay 
it  perhaps  at  certain  doors  where  it  was  not  altogether  justly  clue. 
But,  taking  this  starting-point,  that  it  is  a  question  of  abstractions, 
that  there  is  no  Territory  to  which  mere  theories  are  required  to 
be  applied,  does  not  that  at  once  end  the  whole  matter  ?  Is  it  not 
of  itself  an  absolute  confession  that  there  is  no  ground  for  the  im 
putation  upon  the  people  of  the  North  in  general,  that  there  is  no 
ground  for  fear  in  the  event  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  succeeding  in  lieu  of 
Mr.  Bell,  that  there  is  no  fear  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  by  rea 
son  of  any  thing  these  gentlemen  may  do  if  they  happen  to  get 
possession  of  the  government?  Is  not  that  distinctly  the  confes- 


FOURTH  CONGEES  SIGNAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.         159 

sion  of  that  statement,  that  in  reference  to  the  substantial  ques 
tions  I  have  indicated  there  is  an  absolute  concurrence,  and  in 
reference  to  the  others  in  the  Territories  they  are  questions  of 
abstractions?  I  could  not  have  my  own  opinion  more  felicitously, 
more  accurately,  or  from  a  more  authoritative  source,  stated  for 
the  information  of  my  constituents  and  of  the  country. 

Now,  what  are  the  individual  opinions  of  the  gentlemen  who 
are  before  the  country  for  the  votes  of  the  people  ?-  First,  for 
Mr.  Breckinridge.  We  all-  know  that  he  is  the  seceding  candi 
date  of  the  Democratic  party.  We  all  know  that  his  friends  se 
ceded  because  of  an  inability  to  agree  upon  the  Slavery  Question. 
We  find  him  and  Mr.  Douglas  equally  the  victims  of  that  element 
of  distraction  with  which  they  first  broke  up  the  Whig  party, 
then  severed  and  broke  up  the  American  party,  and  to  which  they 
have  themselves,  by  a  righteous  judgment,  at  last  fallen  victims. 
(Applause.)  What  are  Mr.  Breckinridge's  opinions?  The  most 
extreme,  untenable,  and  dangerous  of  all ;  yet  people,  half  of  them, 
are  afraid  to  controvert  them.  He  maintains  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  itself  carries  slavery  into  all  the  Territories  ;  that  under  it 
any  individual  has  a  right  to  carry  his  slave  there  without  any 
law ;  and  that  laws  must  be  passed  by  Congress,  as  they  may  be 
come  needful,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  it.  The  result,  there 
fore,  of  the  election  of  Mr,  Breckinridge  is,  that  there  will  be  a 
perpetual  struggle  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by  per 
sons  who  desire  to  carry  negroes  into  the  Territories,  and  do  not 
wish  to  do  so  until  they  are  protected  by  law,  to  secure  the  pas 
sage  of  laws  by  Congress  to  protect  them  there.  There  is  not  the 
remotest  probability  that  such  a  law  can  ever  be  passed  through 
both  houses  of  Congress.  It  is  therefore,  in  its  very  statement, 
an  element  of  perpetual  discord,  of  perpetual  strife,  of  perpetual 
alienation,  perpetually  tending  to  widen  still  farther  apart  the  two 
portions  of  the  Union,  until  possibly,  on  some  great  day,  a  disso 
lution  may  follow,  in  the  heated  state  of  the  public  mind  under 
some  casualty  of  the  moment. 

What  are  Mr.  Douglas's  opinions?  They  have  been  variously 
stated  by  himself  in  his  wide  circuit  through  the  country  ;  yet  I 
take  it  that,  for  this  purpose,  there  can  not  be  any  great  difficulty 
in  describing  them  with  accuracy.  I  desire  to  do  him  no  injustice; 
I  desire  to  do  Mr.  Breckinridge  no  injustice.  I  merely  wish  to 
inform  my  constituents  what  are  the  things  which  politicians  try 


160  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

to  conceal.  Mr.  Douglas  has  shown,  with  great  emphasis  and 
great  point  latterly,  in  a  speech,  that  the  Constitution  does  not 
carry  slavery  into  the  Territories.  Of  course  it  would  be  beyond 
the  control  of  the  people  of  a  Territory,  exactly  as  any  provision 
of  the  Constitution  applicable  to  a  State  is  beyond  the  control  of 
the  people  of  the  State ;  but  Mr.  Douglas's  opinion  is,  that  the  in 
habitants  of  a  Territory  have  themselves  the  absolute  right  to 
introduce  and  allow  slavery  if  they  see  fit,  or  to  prohibit  and  ex 
clude  it  if  they  see  fit.  Whether  they  have  this  power  by  reason 
of  some  inherent  right,  or  by  reason  of  the  acts  of  Congress  organ 
izing  the  Territories,  his  language  is  doubtful;  sometimes  he  seems 
to  say  one  thing,  and  sometimes  the  other.  At  any  rate,  he  con 
tends  that  they  may  pass  what  law  they  please  in  reference  to  slav 
ery,  and  may  make  their  domestic  institutions  to  suit  themselves. 
The  great  struggle  in  the  Democratic  party,  and  that  on  which 
it  has  gone  to  pieces  in  the  great  storm,  is,  which  of  these  two 
opinions  is  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  party.  Now,  while  I  am 
very  unwilling  to  undertake  to  decide  questions  of  party  history 
or  of  party  law  for  the  Democrats,  I  rather  fear  that  my  friend, 
Mr.  Douglas,  has  the  better  of  his  antagonist  as  a  question  of  po 
litical  history.  I  rather  fear  that  he  is  not  merely  the  regular 
nominee  of  the  Democratic  party,  but  that  he  likewise  is  the  rep 
resentative  of  the  regular  Democratic  opinion.  I  rather  think  that 
if  there  has  been  a  change,  the  change  has  \>QQnfrom  him,  and  not 
~by  him  from  his  companions.  I  rather  think  that  in  his  great 
speech  in  the  Senate  toward  the  end  of  the  last  session  he  arranged 
an  amount  of  authority  which  ought  to  have  satisfied,  or  at  least 
tended  strongly  to  satisfy  my  mind,  and  probably  satisfied  a  good 
many  others,  that  under  the  ambiguous  phrase  "  non-interven 
tion"  was  couched  the  very  dogma  that  he  himself  proclaimed. 
And  certainly  it  looked  as  if  he  rather  had  his  enemies  on  the  hip 
when  he  quoted  the  language  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  "  it 
being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate 
slavery  into  any  Territory,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to 
leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  regulate  their  domestic 
institutions. in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States."  I  take  it  that  these  words  will  scarcely  bear 
any  other  interpretation  than  that  the  people  of  a  Territory,  before 
they  become  a  State,  have  a  right,  according  to  the  views  of  the 
gentlemen  who  drew  and  passed  that  act,  to  introduce  or  exclude 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND. 

slavery.  I  rather  think  that  he  had  the  "  old  public  functionary"  on 
the  hip  when  he  went  farther,  and  quoted  from  his  letter  of  1856, 
in  which  he  said  that  the  people  of  a  Territory,  like  the  people  of 
a  State,  had  a  right  to  regulate  the  question  of  slavery  for  them 
selves. 

Whatever  may  be  the  truth  between  those  two  divisions  of  the 
Democratic  party,  I  do  not  desire  to  cast  any  more  confusion  into 
their  midst  than  is  there  now.  (Laughter.)  I  do  not  know  how 
they  will  ever  be  able  to  solve  the  great  problem  as  to  what 
are  their  opinions,  unless  they  shall  bring  an  action  in  the  United 
States  Court  on  a  wager,  and  carry  it  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
have  it  there  decided.  (Laughter.)  Or,  if  the  spoils  should  ever 
be  divided  again,  there  should  be  a  suit  brought  in  equity  to  de 
termine  which  of  the  two  portions  is  the  real  seceder,  and  which 
is  entitled  to  the  whole  of  the  property.  (Laughter.)  That  is  a 
problem  that  I  do  not  mean  to  touch;  it  is  a  controversy  in  which 
I  have  no  interest ;  the  farther  and  bitterer  it  is  waged,  the  bet 
ter  probably  for  the  country.  But  there  is  at  least  one  good  and 
patriotic  thing  that  Judge  Douglas  has  done  in  his  life.  Having 
lent  himself  to  the  extreme  Southern  portion  of  his  party  to  do 
their  work,  when  his  turn  came  they  would  not  lend  themselves 
to  him  ;  they  thought  they  had  been  dealing  with  a  tool,  and  they 
found  they  had  been  dealing  with  a  master,  and  they  determined 
to  break  him ;  and  he  reciprocated  the  compliment  by  breaking 
up  the  Democratic  party.  (Applause.) 

There  is  another  good  thing  that  he  has  done.  The  doctrine 
of  Mr.  Breckinridge  to  which  I  have  referred,  it  is  claimed,  rests 
upon  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case;  although  Mr.  Eever.dy  Johnson,  who  argued  that  case,  said 
that  really  the  Supreme  Court  never  passed  upon  any  such  ques 
tion — and  it  is  difficult  for  any  one  who  knows  any  thing  about 
the  legal  points  really  involved  in  the  record  before  the  court  to 
surmise  how  it  was  possible  for  them  even  to  have  gotten  at  it- 
yet  this  theory,  bolstered  up  by  the  perpetual  assertions  of  politi 
cal  men,  has  been  adopted  by  the  great  body  of  the  Democratic 
party  at  the  South,  and  some  of  our  friends  are  gradually  gliding 
into  it,  until  I  suppose  it  will  come,  after  a  while,  to  be  a  great 
piece  of  treason  to  the  South,  a  great  invasion  of  Southern  rights, 
something  dangerous  to  her  internal  condition,  to  venture  to  moot 
a  question  which  is  only  ten  years  old,  and  to  say  that  you  do 

L 


SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

not  believe  in  any  such  legal  absurdity  as  that  the  Constitution 
(which  says  nothing  about  slavery  in  the  Territories)  has  extend 
ed  it  to  the  Territories — an  opinion  as  absurd  as  that  Congress 
can  not  establish  slavery  in  a  Territory  if  it  see  fit. 

The  Democratic  party  has  lived  upon  its  boasted  orthodoxy  for 
the  last  twenty  years.     It  has  been  "  out  at  the  elbows"  in  every 
thing  else ;  its  reputation  is  all  gone  for  every  thing  except  im 
pudence  and  audacity ;  but,  by  holding  itself  out  as  the  special 
protector  of  Southern  institutions,  it  has  been  enabled  to  stand 
upon  its  legs.     It  has  asserted  its  own  exclusive  orthodoxy,  al 
ways  putting  up  the  most  extreme  and  untenable  pretensions, 
and  always  smearing  every  body  else  over  with  the  brush  of  abo 
litionism  who  did  not  see  fit  to  agree  with  it.     Did  any  body 
happen  to  quote  the  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Ohio,  or  the 
nice  family  quarrel  between  the  Hards  and  Softs  of  New  York, 
or  any  other  of  the  wranglings  and  diversities  in  the  free  States, 
over  this  "  hard  doctrine  and  difficult  to  be  received"  by  North 
ern  men,  he  was  told,  "  You  must  not  pretend  to  discuss  differences 
in  the  Democratic  party;  it  is  one  and  indivisible."     (Laughter.) 
But  Judge  Douglas  has  done  this  patriotic  service ;  he  has  carried 
from  Maryland  to  Louisiana,  through  every  slave  State,  the  ele 
ments  of  division  upon  that  new  dogma;  and  when  it  is  attempted 
to  assail  others  for  expressing  their  opinions  on  the  Slavery  Ques 
tion,  who  avow  that  they  hold,  as  I  avow  that  I  hold,  all  the 
opinions  of  Henry  Clay  (applause) — a  little  out  of  fashion  in 
divers  particulars  in  this  day,  but  I  am  getting  to  be  old-fashioned 
—they  can  not  turn  and  say,  "  You  are  an  Abolitionist,  and  the 
united  Democratic  party  is  the  only  one  that  is  faithful  to  the 
South ;"  because,  in  every  neighborhood,  in  every  town,  in  every 
parish,  in  every  county,  rise  up  the  friends  of  Stephen  A.  Doug 
las,  and  say,  "The  Constitution  does  not  carry  slavery  into  the 
Territories,  but  the  people  have  a  right  to  exclude  it  if  they 
choose."     (Applause.)     It  is  no  longer  treason  to  say  that,  for 
their  own  men  say  it ;  and  now,  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Vir 
ginia,  the  Breckinridge  men  are  on  their  knees  to  the  Douglas 
men,  and  say,  "  Oh,  don't  divide,  and  give  the   state  to  Bell." 
(Laughter.)     The  governor  of  the  State,  holding  all  the  powers 
of  the  State,  the  man  who  must  call  out  the  Virginia  militia  "to 
arrest  the  march  of  the  United  States  troops  in  case  of  a  rebel 
lion  farther  South,"  is  tainted  with  the  heresy  of  Douglasism. 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       1(53 

(Laughter.)  .They  have  ceased  to  be  powerful;  they  have 
ceased  to  be  dangerous ;  there  is  again  freedom  of  opinion ;  men 
can  speak  above  their  breath ;  men  can  read  history,  and  repeat 
it,  without  the  fear  of  being  tarred  and  feathered,  in  any  neigh 
borhood  in  the  South.  (Applause.)  If  Mr.  Douglas  shall  never 
do  any  thing  more  than  that,  if  he  shall  fail  to  be  elevated  at  any 
future  period  to  that  glittering  height  which  is  the  object  of  his 
ambition,  I  desire  to  say  that  future  generations  will  owe  him  a 
debt  of  gratitude  for  having,  in  the  course  of  the  internecine 
struggles  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  perhaps  without  meaning 
it,  but  from  the  necessities  of  the  case,  been  instrumental  in  re 
storing  free  speech,  free  opinion,  and  a  right  to  think  as  the 
fathers  thought  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
though  he  does  not  happen  to  think  with  them.  (Applause.) 

Now,  what  are  Mr.  Bell's  opinions  on  these  subjects?  He 
avows,  like  an  honest  man,  his  opinions,  and  they  substantially 
concur  as  a  matter  of  abstract  opinion  with  those  of  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge.  That  is,  he  thinks  that,  without  a  law  of  Congress,  under 
the  Constitution  there  is  a  right  to  take  slaves  into  the  Territories ; 
but  he  differs  from  Mr.  Breckinridge  in  this :  that  he  has  been 
nominated  by  a  party  calling  itself  the  Constitutional  Union 
party,  and  that  party  proclaims  itself,  in  its  address  from  which 
I  have  read  to  you,  an  enemy  of  slavery  agitation,  in  favor  of 
things  remaining  as  they  are,  opposed  to  any  farther  legislation, 
for  the  doctrine  that  I  have  so  often  inculcated  in  your  hearing, 
of  silence  upon  the  Negro  Question.  Let  it  die  the  death ;  let 
the  Territories  remain  as  they  are;  let  there  be  no  effort  to 
change  their  condition,  and  there  can  be  no  controversy.  That 
is  a  position  which  a  gentleman  holding  any  abstract  opinion 
whatever  may  very  well  come  up  to,  and  that  is  the  opinion 
which  the  brief  and  pointed  platform  of  the  Constitutional  Union 
party  assigns  to  both  its  candidates,  wholly  independent  of  what 
their  individual  opinions  may  be.  They  are  what  Mr.  Boteler  in 
his  address  most  appropriately  terms  mere  abstractions,  abstract 
opinions  that  are  not  required  to  be  acted  on  at  this  time,  and  can 
only  be  called  into  living  existence  by  an  attempt  to  put  them  in 
practice,  and  change  the  existing  condition  of  the  Territories ; 
and  if  I  understand  the  opinion  of  all  the  gentlemen  who,  with 
myself,  advocate  the  election  of  Mr.  Bell,  it  is,  that  he  may  silence 
that  controversy,  and  not  reopen  it ;  leave  things  as  they  are,  and 


SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

not  attempt  to  vary  them.  If  that  be  not  the  view  "with  which 
he  was  nominated,  if  that  be  not  the  purpose  of  his  friends,  then 
it  will  be  the  most  pitiable  farce,  and  I  should  be  the  last  man  in 
the  world  to  ask  any  one  here  to  vote  for  John  Bell  as  a  person 
who  was  going  to  quiet  the  Slavery  Question.  It  can  not  be 
quieted  as  long  as  there  is  an  effort  to  change  any  thing,  for  that 
raises  the  question.  When  any  body  proposes  that  any  thing  in 
the  Territories,  no  matter  what  it  may  be,  no  matter  for  whom  it 
may  operate,  or  against  whom  it  may  operate,  should  be  otherwise 
than  it  is,  that  instant  he  opens  the  controversy ;  and  when  the 
controversy  is  opened,  no  one  knows  where  or  how  it  will  be 
ended. 

Next,  with  reference  to  Mr.  Everett.  He  holds,  or  did  hold  in 
former  days,  opinions  upon  exactly  the  other  extreme.  You  re 
member  that  Mr.  Fillmore  was  impeached  of  abolitionism  because, 
at  a  former  time,  when  a  candidate  for  Congress,  he  had  declared 
himself  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  that,  because  men  knew  what  his  policy 
would  be,  the  people  elected  him  Vice-President ;  and  all  the  people 
rose  up  to  do  him  honor  when  he  passed  out  from  the  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  his  high  office.  That  is  only  another  illustration  of 
how  false  a  guide  mere  abstract  constitutional  opinions  are  when 
you  are  selecting  a  President.  The  question  is,  never  what  he 
may  HiinJc  as  a  question  of  law,  but  'what  he  will  do  as  an  admin 
istrator  of  the  law.  (Applause.)  There  can  not  be  a  more  strik 
ing  example  of  that  than  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Everett,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished,  patriotic,  conservative,  and  moderate  men  in 
the  United  States,  perfectly  orthodox  in  his  old  Whig  policy  and 
principles,  having  filled  some  of  the  high  stations  of  the  nation, 
and  now  not,  perhaps,  without  a  prospect  of  filling  the  highest 
itself.  That  gentleman  was  sent  many  years  ago,  I  think  by 
General  Harrison,  as  minister  to  England.  It  appeared,  as  well 
as  I  remember  the  circumstances,  that  he  had  previously  been 
a  candidate  for  some  office  in  Massachusetts,  and  there  he  had 
questions  thrust  at  him  to  which,  in  the  heat  of  the  canvass,  he 
responded,  and  it  seemed  that  he  avowed  himself  in  favor  of 
abolishing  the  slave-trade  between  the  States,  of  the  immediate 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  against  the 
admission  of  any  more  slave  States.  Nowadays  people  would 
open  their  eyes  with  horror  at  the  mere  mention  of  opinions  like 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       165 

these  ;  and  in  that  day  they  wanted  to  injure  that  great  and  dis 
tinguished  man  because  he  entertained  these  opinions,  and  the 
action  of  the  Georgia  Legislature  was  invoked  because  Mr.  Berrien 
had  voted  for  his  confirmation.  Now,  Edward  Everett  is  the 
candidate  of  the  Constitutional  Union  party  for  the  purpose  of 
stopping  agitation  on  the  Slavery  Question  (applause),  and  in  my 
judgment  they  could  have  got  no  fitter  candidate  in  the  United 
States.  (Great  applause.) 

I  say  that  a  man's  abstract  opinions  have  little  or  nothing  to 
do  with  his  discharge  of  the  high  functions  of  either  President  or 
Vice-President ;  and  when  they  are  invoked  by  political  partisans, 
they  are  invoked  to  distract  the  timid,  to  divide  their  opponents, 
to  draw  off  votes,  to  enable  themselves  to  elect  some  person  of 
less  position,  without  expressed  opinions,  by  the  prejudices  that 
they  excite,  by  quotations  of  antiquated  opinions,  or  opinions  in 
tended  for  another  era,  applicable  to  a  different  combination  of 
circumstances,  having  no  relation  to  those  things  that  are  now  to 
be  done,  and  therefore  impertinences,  so  far  as  the  political  can 
vass  is  concerned.  Are  we  to  be  prevented  from  voting  for  Mr. 
Everett  because  some  Democratic  orator  down  in  the  slaveholding 
counties  may  rake  up  that  question  and  the  response,  and  say, 
"You  are  voting  for  an  Abolitionist?"  I  have  seen  the  day 
when  men  who  were  Whigs  were  fools  enough  to  be  frightened 
at  that  howl.  I  take  it  that  now  they  have  learned  that  it  is 
merely  a  howl,  and  nothing  else,  and  they  treat  it  accordingly. 
(Applause.) 

Both  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Bell,  by  virtue  of  the  simple  decla 
ration  that  they  are  in  favor  of  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws,  have  pledged  themselves  to  silence, 
to  quiet,  to  leaving  things  as  they  are,  to  the  faithful  and  honest 
execution  of  every  law,  and  from  such  men  in  these  days  that  is 
ample.  It  is  impossible  to  go  back  into  the  history  of  any  man 
who  has  filled  public  station  in  this  country  for  twenty  years,  and 
not  find  that  in  the  sharp  struggles  of  parties  here  he  has  uttered  ' 
an  obnoxious  sentiment,  that  there  he  has  been  guilty  of  an  im 
prudent  or  unpopular  vote,  that  here  he  has  answered  a  question 
thrust  at  him  in  the  heat  of  a  canvass,  which,  pushed  to  its  logical 
consequences,  would  involve  a  great  error.  If  you  allow  your 
selves  to  be  misled  by  that  style  of  canvassing,  you  will  strip  the 
country  of  the  services  of  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  its  best  men, 


166  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

confine  it  to  people  who  have  been  so  insignificant  that  they  have 
never  been  called  upon  to  make  a  declaration  upon  any  great 
controverted  question ;  who  have  all  the  time  been  skulking 
along,  endeavoring  to  get  upon  the  popular  side  for  the  time  be 
ing,  eschewing  pen,  ink,  paper,  and  printing,  as  if  they  were  the 
inventions  of  Mephistophel.es,  and  trusting  by  their  very  insignif 
icance  to  worm  themselves  up  into  high  station,  as  I  have  seen 
divers  in  these  latter  days,  even  to  the  presidential  chair.  It  is 
this  sheer  cowardice,  this  fear  to  take  gentlemen  upon  their  course 
and  conduct,  and  not  upon  their  expressions  and  their  abstract 
opinions,  that  has  driven  great  men  from  the  presidential  chair. 
It  is  because  gentlemen  are  afraid  of  being  turned  out  of  Congress, 
are  afraid  of  going  before  their  constituents,  and  being  hissed  for 
making  the  avowal  of  obnoxious  opinions,  that  you  have  weak 
men  in  public  life,  and  the  race  of  great  men  has  gone  to  the 
grave.  (Applause.) 

Well,  now,  what  are  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln?  Let  us 
meet  the  question  right  in  the  eye :  What  are  the  opinions  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  because  there  are  certain  parties  in  this  country  who 
say  that  if  he  is  elected'  they  will  dissolve  the  Union.  I  do  not 
assert  that  all  Mr.  Breckinridge's  friends  say  so.  I  believe  that 
the  vast  majority  of  them  have  no  such  idea.  I  believe  that 
very  many  of  them  who  say  so  would  not  attempt  it  when  the 
time  came.  (Laughter.)  I  believe  in  the  "  sober  second  thought." 
I  believe  that  the  difficulties  of  the  practical  execution,  that  hor 
ror  at  shedding  fraternal  blood,  would  make  the  boldest  pause. 
I  do  not  fear  the  result.  I  am  confident  that  Mr.  Breckinridge 
himself  entertains  no  such  policy.  I  am  not  here  to  misrepresent 
any  political  antagonist.  I  am  not  here  to  sow  dissensions  be 
tween  any  regions  of  the  country.  I  merely  say  that  there  arc 
parties  who  declare  that  that  event  will  be  cause  for  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union ;  and  that  declaration  on  their  part  is  made  the 
pretext  of  an  echo  from  other  quarters,  that  if  Lincoln  be  elected, 
such  will  be  the  result.  Now  I  say  that  will  not  be  the  result, 
and  in  my  judgment  it  will  not  be  tried ;  but  since  it  is  said  that 
in  that  event  they  are  going  to  take  steps  at  least  to  break  .up  the 
confederacy,  let  us  see  upon  what  ground  they  are  going  to  do  it. 

Mr.  Boteler  says,  in  his  address,  in  the  most  authoritative  man 
ner,  that  on  the  really  great  questions,  among  the  conservative 
portions  of  the  ^Republican  party,  there  is  an  acquiescence  in  what 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       167 

we  suppose  to  be  essential  to  our  safety — the  right  of  slave-trade 
between  the  States,  the  right  to  continue  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  What 
else  is  open  ?  Nothing,  literally  nothing,  excepting  the  mere  con 
dition  of  the  Territories.  Then,  what  now  is  the  condition  of  the 
Territories  ?  Absolutely  free  in  point  of  fact ;  no  slave  in  them, 
remaining  as  they  were  at  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise — in  spite  of  that  repeal,  remaining  as  free  from  slav 
ery  as  if  that  compromise  had  never  been  repealed.  What  is  there, 
then,  to  change  ?  From  the  extremest  point  of  view,  nothing. 
It  is  only  with  reference  to  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories  that  we  are  told,  by  the  address  from  the  National  Com 
mittee  of  the  Union  party,  that  there  is  a  controversy  open,  and 
as  to  them  it  is  said  that  the  controversy  is  a  controversy  of  ab 
stractions.  But  it  can  be  stated  stronger  than  that.  So  far  as 
the  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  friends  go,  the  Territories  are 
in  the  exact  condition  in  which  they  want  to  keep  them.  They 
say,  "Let  the  subject  alone,  and  they  have  nothing  to  say  ;  if  you 
attempt  to  carry  slavery  there,  we  will  attempt  to  exclude  it ;  if 
you  attempt  to  extend  it,  we  will  oppose  the  extension ;  if  you 
attempt  to  plant  slavery  in  territory  which  we  think  is  now  free, 
we  not  only  will  not  vote  with  you,  but  we  will  vote  against  you, 
and  we  will  use  the  power  of  the  government  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  it  where  it  is."  It  is  not  necessary,  even  if  it  was  their 
design,  now  to  propose  the  passage  of  any  law  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  at  all.  The  Territories  are  practically  in  the  exact  con 
dition  that  they  were  when  Mr.  Clay  introduced  his  great  Com 
promise  Bill,  which  was  the  foundation  of  peace  until  the  contro 
versy  was  reopened  by  the  Democrats  in  1854.  The  condition  of 
the  Territories  remains  as  it  was  when  Mr.  Clay  had  his  bills 
passed,  saying  not  one  word  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  but  resting 
on  his  resolutions.  What  were  his  resolutions  ?  The  second  of 
the  resolutions  which  Mr.  Clay  brought  into  the  Senate  on  the 
great  occasion  in  1850  runs  in  this  wise — I  pray  you,  gentlemen, 
be  not  shocked  because  I  told  you  that  Mr.  Clay  held  some  old- 
fashioned  notions,  but  this  resolution  was  the  foundation  of  the 
legislation  of  that  day ;  it  was  attacked  by  the  extreme  Southern 
men  in  the  Senate,  it  was  denounced  as  being  no  compromise  at 
all ;  but  it  was  the  view  on  which  great  men,  such  as  Mr.  Benton 
on  one  side,  and  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  on  the  other  side,  con- 


168  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

curred  for  the  settlement  of  the  Territorial  difficulties,  and  there 
fore  it  bears  a  historic  significance  even  beyond  the  vast  authority 
of  the  name  of  the  man  who  reported  it.  It  runs  in  this  wise : 

"  That  as  slavery  does  not  exist  by  law,  and  is  not  likely  to  be  introduced  into 
any  territory  acquired  by  the  United  States  from  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  it  is  in 
expedient  for  Congress  to  provide  by  law  either  for  its  introduction  or  exclusion 
from  any  part  of  said  territory." 

Silence  upon  the  Slavery  Question,  leaving  the  Territory  as  it 
was,  and  nothing  more,  was  the  great  wisdom  of  that  compromise. 
(Applause.)  Here  you  see  what  Mr.  Clay  thought.  He  thought 
slavery  did  not  exist  there,  because  the  laws  of  Mexico  excluded 
it.  The  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  excluded  it  from  all  the 
residue  of  the  territory.  It  was  on  that  basis,  coupled  with  the 
unfitness  of  the  country  for  slave  labor  even  if  the  laws  did  not 
exclude  it,  that  Mr.  Webster  made  the  great  declaration  that  there 
was  an  irrepealable  law,  of  one  kind  or  another,  which  forever 
settled  the  condition  as  to  slavery  of  every  foot  of  territory  in  the 
United  States. 

Now,  gentlemen,  what  Abraham  Lincoln  thinks  is  what  Mr. 
Clay  thought  with  reference  to  slavery  and  the  condition  of  the 
Territory — that  it  is  free.  It  is  therefore  needless  to  pass  any 
law  upon  the  subject.  He  thinks  it  is  time,  and  so  do  a  great 
many  others  who  bear  Mr.  Clay's  memory  in  high  esteem — not 
with  Mr.  Douglas,  that  a  bunch  of  squatters,  congregated  under  a 
bush,  can  pass  a  law  to  determine  the  condition  of  the  Territory 
for  you  and  me — but  that  the  great  National  Legislature,  which 
under  the  Constitution  has  the  power  "to  make  all  needful  rules 
and  regulations  concerning  the  Territory,"  has  the  power,  if  it  see 
fit,  to  exclude  or  to  admit  slavery  in  any  Territory,  and  that,  in 
the  absence  of  a  statute,  there  is  no  law  to  authorize  it ;  and  then 
slavery  can  no  more  exist  than  a  man  can  exist  without  air  to 
breathe.  Here  is  the  language  of  Mr.  Clay  upon  that  subject — 
that  it  is  an  evil,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended  voluntarily : 

"I  am  extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  senator  from  Mississippi  say  that  he  requires 
first  the  extension  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  and  also  that  he 
is  not  satisfied  with  that,  but  requires,  if  I  understood  him  correctly,  a  positive  pro 
vision  for  the  admission  of  slavery  south  of  that  line.  And  now,  sir,  coming  from 
a  slave  State  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I  owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  subject  to 
state,  that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  me  to  vote  for  a  specific  measure  for  the 
introduction  of  slavery  where  it  had  not  before  existed,  either  south  or  north  of  that 
line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a  slave  State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliberate,  and  well-ma- 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       169 

tured  determination  that  no  power — no  earthly  power — shall  compel  me  to  vote  for 
the  positive  introduction  of  slavery  either  south  or  north  of  that  line.  Sir,  while 
you  reproach,  and  justly  too,  our  British  ancestors  for  the  introduction  of  this  insti 
tution  upon  the  continent  of  America,  I  am,  for  one,  unwilling  that  the  posterity  of 
the  p'resent  inhabitants  of  California  and  New  Mexico  shall  reproach  us  for  doing 
just  what  we  repi'oach  Great  Britain  for  doing  to  us.  If  the  citizens  of  those  Ter 
ritories  choose  to  establish  slavery,  I  am  for  admitting  them  with  such  provisions  in 
their  Constitution ;  but  then  it  will  be  their  own  work,  and  not  ours,  and  their  pos 
terity  will  have  to  reproach  them,  and  not  us,  for  forming  Constitutions  allowing 
the  institution  of  slavery  to  exist  among  them.  These  are  my  views,  sir,  and  I 
choose  to  express  them ;  and  I  care  not  how  extensively  and  universally  they  are 
known.  The  honorable  senator  from  Virginia  has  expressed  his  opinion  that  slavery 
exists  in  these  Territories,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  opinion  is  sincerely  and  hon 
estly  entertained  by  him  ;  and  I  would  say  with  equal  sincerity  and  honesty,  that  I 
believe  that  slavery  nowhere  exists  within  any  portion  of  the  territory  acquired •  by  us 
from  Mexico.  He  holds  a  directly  contrary  opinion  to  mine,  as  he  has  a  perfect 
right  to  do ;  and  we  will  not  quarrel  about  that  difference  of  opinion." 

Then,  again,  touching  the  power: 

"The  power,  then,  Mr.  President — and  I  extend  it  to  the  introduction  as  well  as 
to  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  new  Territories — does  exist  Avith  Congress.  I 
think  iuis  a  power  adequate  either  to  introduce  or  exclude  slavery.  I  admit  the 
argument  in  both  its  forms  of  application." 

Judged  by  the  standard  of  Henry  Clay,  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  together  with  the  opinion  of  all  the  great  men  of  the 
North,  excepting,  possibly,  a  few  Democrats,  for  aught  I  know  to 
the  contrary,  is,  that  slavery  is  an  evil  which  they  are  unwilling 
to  extend,  and  that  the  power  of  exclusion  exists,  leaving  open 
the  question  of  the  necessity  or  expediency  of  exercising  it.  Now, 
what  with  reference  to  the  expediency  of  exercising  it  ?  The 
opinion  is  expressed,  as  distinctly  as  can  be,  that  since  slavery 
does  not,  in  point  of  fact,  exist  in  the  Territories,  and  since  they 
think  it  can  only  exist  by  affirmative  legislation,  they  have  no 
legislation  to  ask  unless  legislation  is  asked  on  the  other  side ;  and 
hence  that  great  declaration  of  Mr.  Sherman,  when  he  was  candi 
date  for  Speaker  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  in  the  face  of 
the  storm  of  vilification  and  abuse  with  which  he  was  assailed  by 
the  Democrats  during  the  whole  of  that  long  controversy — a  de 
claration  which  gentlemen  may  not  be  willing  to  repeat,  but  which 
it  behooves  every  man  who  wishes  to  know  the  truth  of  the  his 
tory  of  the  country  to  bear  in  his  mind  and  ponder — in  substance, 
if  not  in  words,  was,  "I  tell  gentlemen  now  here  that  there  is  not 
one  subject  of  sectional  controversy  which  can  possibly  arise  un- 


170  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

less  it  is  thrust  on  us  by  our  opponents."  That  was  said  when 
he  was  the  candidate  of  the  ^Republican  party  for  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives.  It  was  said  in  the  face  of  the  Kepub- 
licans  who  were  voting  for  him.  It  was  a  sentiment  that  I  knew 
he  had  entertained  ever  since  I  had  the  honor  of  sitting  in  the 
House  with  him.  It  might  have  been  thought  of  some  persons  a 
rash  declaration  for  a  man  in  the  doubtful  and  ticklish  condition 
of  a  candidate  for  Speaker,  within  three  or  four  votes  of  an  elec 
tion,  and  therefore  the  more  manly,  and  also  the  more  significant. 
It  was  received  in  silence  by  his  party,  and  he  received  again  and 
again  their  votes  for  that  position. 

Does  that  look  like  reopening  the  Slavery  Question  ?  Every 
body  who  knows  any  thing  about  the  history  of  the  country  must 
know  that,  from  the  first  day  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  down  to  this  time,  whatever  of  excitement  there  has  been 
in  the  country,  and  especially  in  the  North,  however  much  of  ex 
aggerated  sentiment  there  may  have  been  uttered,  however  furi 
ous  the  onslaughts  of  their  newspapers  and  speakers  on  the  South 
and  its  institutions — never  more  violent,  never  more  excited, 
never  more  outrageous  than  the  retorts  and  retaliations  of  South 
ern  Democrats  upon  them — -judging  by  the  record  (the  only  way 
to  judge  of  the  purposes  of  political  parties),  there  never  has  been 
an  act  attempted  that  looked  beyond  reinstating  things  as  they 
were  prior  to  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  There 
were  measures  which  I  thought  were  unwise;  there  were  some 
which  I  thought  were  imprudent;  they  were  all,  I  thought,  un 
necessary,  because  I  knew  they  never  could  become  laws,  even  if 
ill  results  would  not  have  followed  from  them  if  they  had  become 
laws ;  because  the  fixed  Democratic  majority  in  the  Senate  pre 
vented  their  enactment ;  but  the  scope  of  these  proposed  laws  was 
confined  to  the  reinstatement  of  things  as  they  were  before  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  controversy  has  raged 
about  the  Territory  of  Kansas.  The  struggle  has,  been  on  the 
part  of  the  administration,  in  Democratic  hands,  to  force  slavery 
into  it,  against  the  will  of  the  people.  The  struggle  on  the  part 
of  the  whole  body  of  the  Northern  people  has  been  to  prevent 
slavery  from  being  forced  into  Kansas.  Nobody  can  doubt  that 
that  is  an  extension  of  slavery.  Nobody  can  doubt  that  that  is 
carrying  slavery  where  it  has  not  heretofore  existed.  Nobody 
can  doubt,  therefore,  that  it  is  within  the  position  that  leading 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND. 

Northern  gentlemen,  Mr.  Lincoln  among  them,  take  with  reference 
to  slavery,  and  especially  the  opinion  of  that  great  man,  Mr.  Ed 
ward  Bates,  that  they  are  opposed  to  its  extension,  to  its  going 
where  it  is  not  now,  and  that  is  all. 

I  happen  to  have  been  a  party  to  all  this  controversy,  some 
times  voting  in  a  manner  that  did  not  satisfy  some  of  my  friends, 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  voting  in  a  manner  that  did  not  altogeth 
er  satisfy  me  on  cooler  reflection  subsequently ;  at  all  times,  how 
ever,  struggling  to  do  what  I  thought  was  best  under  the  circum 
stances,  and  with  the  little  power  that  I  had.  But  I  was  at  least 
a  witness  of  them  ;  I  saw  what  -passed  ;  I  heard  the  argument ;  I 
think  I  remember  the  history.  Turn  to  the  journals  of  Congress, 
and  you  will  find,  I  think,  that  that  controversy  sums  itself  up  in 
these  several  points: 

The  first  bill  was  a  bill  to  repeal  the  laws  of  Kansas  passed  by 
the  Legislature  whose  legality  was  contested.  You  remember 
that  it  was  supposed — nay,  asserted  and  proved ;  there  is  no  sup 
position  about  it  now;  every  body  admits  it  and  every  body  knows 
it,  since  the  great  investigation  ordered  by  the  first  Congress  in 
which  I  was  by  your  votes — that  that  Legislature  was  elected  by 
Missourians  and  others  out  of  the  Territory  of  Kansas.  A  bill 
was  introduced  to  repeal  the  laws  of  that  Legislature  forced  on  the 
people  by  non-residents  of  the  Territory.  Was  that  agitating  the 
Slavery  Question  ?  The  next  was  a  bill  introduced  by  my  friend, 
Mr.  Dunn,  now  deceased,  reorganizing  the  Territory  of  Kansas, 
reinstating  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  providing  that  any 
slaves  which  might  be  there  might  be  removed  within  one  or  two 
years  after  the  passage  of  the  bill,  which  bill  was  met  by  the 
Democrats  in  the  North  with  an  attack  upon  the  Eepublicans  for 
establishing  slavery  in  the  Territory,  and  more  than  one  member 
of  Congress  lost  his  election  by  reason  of  that  Democratic  argu 
ment.  That,  you  see,  merely  went  to  reinstating  the  Missouri 
Compromise  line.  The  third  was  the  bill  to  admit  Kansas  under 
the  Topeka  Constitution.  That  failed ;  but  it  was  only  to  make 
it  a  free  State.  It  was  an  unwise  bill — a  bill  that  ought  not  to 
have  become  a  law,  because  there  was  a  mere  handful  of  people 
in  the  Territory ;  but  it  did  nothing  so  bad  as  what  the  Democrats 
tried  to  do  the  next  year,  when  they  framed  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitution  by  a  minority  of  the  people,  and  attempted  to  force  that 
on  the  people  of  Kansas.  The  next  bill  was  to  abolish  the  exist- 


172  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

ing  laws,  and  to  reorganize  the  Territory  of  Kansas  without  one 
word  relating  to  slavery  in  any  way.  In  other  words,  as  the  con 
test  progressed,  the  hot  blood  cooled,  and  the  whole  body  of  the 
Northern  representatives  began  to  see  that  all  they  wanted  was 
to  wipe  out  the  Territorial  laws,  leaving  the  Territory  to  the  peo 
ple,  and  they  stopped  there  in  that  bill. 

The  only  other  controversy  that  arose  was  in  reference  to  the 
Lecompton  Constitution.  The  Democratic  party  had  again  taken 
the  lead  in  forcing  a  slave  Constitution  upon  the  people  against 
their  will,  and  I,  together  with  other  Southern  representatives,  Mr. 
Marshall  (now  supporting  Mr.  Breckinridge),  Mr.  Gilmer,  of  North 
Carolina,  Mr.  Underwood,  of  Kentucky,  Mr.  Harris,  of  Maryland 
(applause),  and  one  or  two  others,  concurred  in  defeating  it,  under 
the  lead  of  Mr.  Crittenden.  I  take  it  that  it  was  not  agitating  the 
Slavery  Question.  If  it  was,  it  was  agitating  it  in  very  strange 
company  and  under  very  singular  auspices. 

Now,  gentlemen,  the  statement  I  have  just  made  covers  the  his 
tory  of  the  controversy  in  Congress,  since  I  went  there,  up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  last  session,  on  the  subject  of  the  Territories. 
The  wild  platform  adopted  at  Philadelphia  in  1856  said,  "It  is 
both  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  in  the  Territories 
those  twin  relics  of  barbarism,  polygamy  and  slavery."  At  Chi 
cago  (to  show  what  men  do  when  they  become  cool)  all  that  reso 
lution  is  wholly  left  out,  and  there  is  in  it  no  declaration  of  a  duty 
to  pass  any  law  at  this  time  on  the  subject.  They  declare  the 
condition  of  the  Territories  to  be  free  in  their  opinion,  in  the  ab 
sence  of  any  law  on  the  subject,  just  as  Mr.  Breckinridge  declares 
them  to  be  slave  in  the  absence  of  a  law  on  the  subject.  But  they 
proposed  no  action  on  the  subject,  and  they  repealed  and  omitted 
that  resolution  which  was  in  the  platform  of  1856.  If  any  thing 
more  significant  could  be  required,  it  is  that  in  the  three,  or  four, 
or  five  bills  which  were  introduced  during  the  last  session  by 
Mr.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania — in  all  conscience,  a  stiff  Free-Soiler 
enough  for  any  body — as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territo 
ries,  to  organize  certain  new  Territories,  there  was  simply  a  dec 
laration,  in  the  precise  spirit  of  the  resolution  which  I  have  read 
as  reported  by  Mr.  Clay,  that  nothing  in  these  bills,  which  were 
absolutely  silent  on  the  subject,  should  be  taken  to  authorize  slav 
ery  in  the  Territories — a  simple  declaration  of  opinion,  needless, 
in  my  judgment  imprudent,  because  liable  to  be  distorted  and  mis- 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       173 

represented,  but  not  at  all  amounting  to  a  law  of  affirmative  ex 
clusion,  but  leaving  the  law  as  it  stood  at  the  time  of  the  passage 
of  the  bills. 

Well,  gentlemen,  how  are  you  to  judge  of  the  purposes  of  a 
party  ?  By  hunting  up  the  speeches  of  small  men  who  want  to 
carry  a  neighborhood  vote  ?  By  extracts  from  furious  editors  of 
small  papers,  who  think  they  are  never  safe  unless  they  are  beyond 
the  most  extreme  in  their  neighborhood?  Are  we  to  judge  of 
men's  opinions  by  the  imputations  of  their  enemies  and  their  ex 
aggerations  for  a  purpose?  Are  we  to  suppose  that  our  friends 
are  black  because  their  enemies  daub  them  black?  Or  are  we 
not  rather  to  look  at  the  facts,  and  to  remember  that  among  the 
millions  of  the  North  there  are  men  as  wise  as  we  are,  as  honest 
as  we  are,  as  well  educated  as  we  are,  having  as  great  interests  at 
stake  in  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  as  we  have,  and  as  earnestly 
and  honestly  devoted  to  the  integrity  of  the  Constitution  as  we 
are,  and  that  they  are  not  likely  deliberately  to  invite  civil  war, 
deliberately  to  moot  questions  which  are  wholly  needless,  what 
ever  their  opinions  may  be  on  them  ?  Let  us  at  least  give  them 
credit  for  common  sense,  and  take  their  declarations  rather  than 
the  declarations  of  their  enemies  and  of  our  enemies.  Is  a  Demo 
crat's  impeachment  evidence  against  any  body  on  a  question  of 
politics?  (Laughter,  and  cries  of  "No,  no.")  Now  we  all  know 
that  there  are  men  who  are  furious  at  the  South  on  the  Negro 
Question,  and  there  are  men  at  the  North  who  are  furious  on  the 
Negro  Question.  I  am  thankful  that  they  are  in  an  equally  small 
minority  in  both  sections.  Their  power  is  clamor.  I  do  not  be 
lieve  that  between  them  they  could  set  a  regiment  in  the  field, 
even  if  they  desired  to  do  so. 

And,  gentlemen,  if  a  collateral  proof  was  required  of  how  far 
the  conservative  masses  of  the  North,  the  conservative  leaders  of 
the  Republican  party,  or,  rather,  of  the  whole  body  of  the  opposi 
tion  in  the  North  to  the  Democratic  party,  are  misrepresented, 
there  would  be  no  better  or  more  convincing  proof  than  in  the 
fact  that  while  the  whole  body  of  the  Eepublican  party  are  de 
nounced  as  Abolitionists,  the  Abolitionists  themselves  have  very 
quietly  refused  their  support,  and  are  organizing  separate  tickets 
for  themselves.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Can  Mr.  Breckinridge's 
friends  say  as  much  of  the  disunionists  ?  "Why  are  not  the  Abo 
litionists  satisfied  with  the  representations  of  our  Southern  breth- 


174  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

ren  ?  They  -can  not  want  any  thing  more  than  to  invade  the 
South ;  they  can  not  want  any  thing  more  than  to  disturb  our  fire 
sides;  they  can  not  want  any  thing  more  than  to  break  up  the 
slave-trade  between  the  States ;  they  can  not  want  any  thing  more 
than  scenes  of  blood  and  destruction  throughout  the  country; 
they  can  not  want  any  thing  more  than  to  repeat  John  Brown's 
crazy  and  bloody  exploit  by  the  thousand  times  a  year.  That  is 
what  we  are  taught  by  leading  orators  of  the  Democrats  to  expect, 
if  not  the  result  of  a  set  purpose,  the  tendency  of  the  conduct  of 
the  conservative  millions  of  the  North ;  and  that  in  the  face  of 
the  fact  that,  great  as  was  the  storm  raised  by  that  insanity  of 
John  Brown,  and  reckless  as  were  the  imputations  upon  gentle 
men  of  certain  political  opinions  throughout  the  whole  North,  yet, 
with  all  the  powers  of  the  United  States  to  rake  evidence  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  with  a  diligent  examination, 
extending  through  months,  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
by  an  able  and  honorable  committee,  headed  by  Mr.  Mason,  of 
Virginia,  and  after  a  careful  examination  by  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia,  there  was  no  evidence  found  that  implicated  any  body 
of  confederates,  or  any  man  holding  political  position,  or  aspiring 
to  hold  any  position,  any  where  in  the  North,  with  that  insane 
performance.  It  is,  as  I  have  said  before,  instead  of  being  a  source 
of  disquietude,  the  most  quieting  of  all  the  occurrences  of  the  last 
half  century.  It  has  lifted  the  veil  of  misrepresentation,  and  en 
abled  us  to  see  what  men  are  doing.  Till  that  event  occurred, 
and  till  these  investigations  were  had,  such  was  the  uniformity  of 
the  imputation  of  extreme  anti-slavery  opinions  to  a  great  body 
of  men  at  the  North,  and  of  an  earnest  determination  to  intermed 
dle  with  Southern  institutions  to  their  damage,  that  gentlemen, 
even  of  cairn  minds,  were  perhaps  justified  in  having  a  doubt,  or 
even  perhaps  in  forming  opinions  adverse  to  them  upon  the  sub 
ject.  But  when  investigations  were  made,  after  that  occurrence, 
subsequent  to  all  the  provocations,  all  the  series  of  outrages  in 
Kansas  Territory,  where  Northern  men  were  allowed  to  be  hunt 
ed  down  by  the  hundred,  during,  I  believe,  more  than  a  year,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  extending  slavery  into  it,  by  border  ruffians 
— notwithstanding  all  that  excitement,  nobody  could  be  found  im 
plicated,  except  those  at  Harper's  Ferry,  directly  with  Brown,  and 
one  or  two  accomplices,  who  had  fled.  No  man  of  name,  not  even 
any  of  the  leading  Abolitionists  at  the  North,  was  found  concern- 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       175 

ed  in  it.  Why,  it  is,  as  a  general  thing,  true,  that  the  Abolition 
ists  of  the  North,  so  far  from  exciting  rebellion,  are  of  the  Quakers7 
opinion,  that  it  is  wrong  to  shed  blood,  and  are  the  most  peaceable 
and  quiet,  if  the  silliest  and  most  misled,  of  people  in  the  world. 
(Laughter.) 

Gentlemen,  I  have  stated  what  I  believe  to  be  the  condition  of 
affairs  at  the  North.  If,  with  these  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his 
leading  friends,  they  should  succeed  in  reaching  power,  my  opin 
ion  is  that  they  will  act  upon  these  opinions ;  and  unless  the  ques 
tion  is  forced  on  them  by  being  raised  by  Democratic  agitation, 
they  will  let  it  rest  where  it  is,  because  they  have  nothing  to  ac 
complish,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  reopen  the  ques 
tion,  and  they  declare  that  their  only  purpose  is  to  oppose  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  into  territory  now  free ;  or,  in  the  words  of 
Mr.  Bates — who  is  entitled  to  speak  for  them — in  enumerating 
the  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  his  personal  and  political  friend,  "his 
opinions  are,  that  slavery  is  an  institution  in  the  States,  of  the 
States  which  choose  to  have  it,  and  it  exists  within  these  States 
beyond  the  control  of  Congress ;  that  Congress  has  supreme  leg 
islative  power  over  all  the  Territories,  and  may  at  its  discretion 
allow  or  forbid  the  existence  of  slavery  within  them ;  that  Con 
gress  in  wisdom  and  sound  policy  ought  not  so  to  exercise  its 
power,  directly  or  indirectly,  as  to  plant  and  establish  slavery  in 
any  territory  theretofore  free,  and  that  it  is  unwise  and  impolitic 
in  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  acquire  tropical  re 
gions  for  the  mere  purpose  of  converting  them  into  slave  States." 

Then,  gentlemen,  over  all  the  present  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  unless  Democrats  agitate  to  extend  slavery  in  fact,  it  is  set 
tled,  according  to  the  confessions  of  the  Union  party,  according  to 
the  confession  of  every  body  excepting  Mr.  Douglas  upon  one  side 
and  Mr.  Breckinridge  upon  the  other.  Who  is  in  favor  of  ac 
quiring  more  territory  to  reopen  the  question  ?  I  am  not.  Are 
you?  ("No,  no.")  Is  John  Bell?  Is  Edward  Everett?  .Is  Mr. 
Lincoln  ?  Not  one  of  them.  Which  is  the  party  that  does  not 
frown  on  the  filibusters ;  or,  if  not  quite  that,  what  party  claims 
to  be  the  party  of  expansion ;  what  party  proposed  to  buy  Cuba 
at  an  expense  of  $300,000,000— a  small  item  of  $18,000,000  in 
terest  per  annum  to  be  saddled  on  you  and  me  ?  Who  proposed 
to  take  military  possession  of  Sonora  and  Chihuahua,  which,  if 
once  gotten,  would  never  be  given  up?  Who  was  negotiating  a 


176       SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

treaty  which  virtually  inaugurated  a  protectorate  over  Mexico, 
which  must  sooner  or  later  resolve  itself  into  a  conquest  and  an 
nexation  ?  Not  those  opposed  to  the  Democratic  party. 

The  Democratic  leaders  are  the  persons  who  alone  propose  to 
acquire  additional  territory.  If  they  do  acquire  it,  they  must  take 
the  responsibility  of  the  agitation  that  will  arise  out  of  it.  That 
it  will  be  fierce  is  certain ;  that  it  can  be  settled  is  uncertain.  That 
the  acquisition  can  be  prevented,  and  ought  to  be  prevented,  is  of 
all  things  the  most  clear.  If  great  international  necessities  should 
force  upon  us,  contrary  to  our  will,  additional  territory,  I  take  it 
that,  irrespective  of  the  abstract  opinions  of  this  party  or  that,  it 
will  be  apt  to  settle  itself  according  to  the  existing  condition  of 
the  territory  when  it  is  acquired.  I  doubt  very  much,  if  you  were 
to  acquire  the  Tierra  Caliente  of  Mexico  to-morrow,  with  the  Mexi 
can  population  densely  filling  it,  slavery  could  ever  be  carried 
there ;  for  it  could  only  be  carried  there  by  consent  of  the  people, 
if  at  all ;  and  the  Mexicans,  having  abolished  it  once,  would  not 
be  likely  to  reinstate  it.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you  acqiiired  Cuba 
with  its  immense  negro  population,  no  amount  of  opposition  could 
prevent  its  admission  into  the  Union  with  its  slaves,  as  it  stood. 
When  acquired,  in  other  words,  the  law  of  settlement  would  be 
the  statesman's  law  applied  by  Mr.  Clay  to  the  territory  acquired 
from  Mexico — the  status  quo,  the  condition  in  which  it  is  when 
acquired.  If  it  is  free,  it  is  impossible  in  this  country  ever  to 
make  it  slave,  for  the  whole  body  of  the  Northern  vote  is  irrevo 
cably  committed  against  it.  If  it  is  slave,  the  body  of  the  North 
ern  as  well  as  of  the  Southern  vote  is  committed  against  an  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  in  a  State ;  and  Cuba  must  be  acquired  as  a  State, 
if  acquired  at  all.  The  whole  conservative  body  of  the  country 
would  be  resolutely  and  positively  opposed  to  freeing  the  mass  of 
negroes  in  that  island,  against  the  will  of  the  people  of  the  island, 
just  exactly  as  they  would  be  to  freeing  them  in  Louisiana  itself. 
So  I  take  it  that  if,  in  future  years,  we  should  be  driven  upon  the 
acquisition  of  farther  territory,  the  question  will  be  settled  as  it 
was  settled  in  1850,  and  that  no  power  in  this  country  can  prevent 
its  being  so  settled,  if,  indeed,  it  be  adjusted  at  all.  If  you  acquire 
territory  free,  it  will  remain  free.  If  you  acquire  the  island  of 
Cuba,  slavery  will  remain  the  law  of  the  land  until  the  inhabitants 
change  it. 

Gentlemen,  we  have  in  the  threats  against  the  Union,  in  the 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       177 

event  of  the  election  of  one  of  the  candidates,  only  another  in 
stance  of  that  persistent  agitation  of  the  Slavery  Question,  and 
appealing  to  men's  fears,  and  attempting  to  shake  their  nerves, 
which  has  been  the  policy,  in  my  judgment,  of  the  Democratic, 
party  for  a  great  many  years  past.  Break  up  the  government ! 
Why,  gentlemen,  who  are  going  to  do  it?  Mr.  Douglas  is  not, 
for  his  whole  charge  against  his  Democratic  opponent  is  that  he 
is  a  Disunionist.  Mr.  Bell  is  not,  because  he  is  named  as  the 
Union  candidate.  Mr.  Lincoln  is  not,  because  one  of  the  grounds 
of  charge  against  him  is  that  he  says  the  South  shall  not  secede 
if  she  wants  to  do  so.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge  disavows  being  a  secessionist,  and  I  believe  him.  The  great 
body  of  his  followers,  I  believe,  disavow  it  likewise.  I  believe 
them.  As  to  the  remaining  small  body  of  noisy  Disunionists — I 
have  no  doubt  there  are  such  persons  in  the  United  States,  but  I 
think  that  now,  as  heretofore,  in  the  event  of  no  great  grievance 
occurring,  of  no  great  outrage  being  perpetrated,  of  no  war  being 
made  on  the  Southern  States  and  their  institutions ;  upon  every 
thing  being  allowed  to  continue  as  it  has  been  hitherto,  and  to  go 
on  as  it  has  proceeded  heretofore ;  the  sun  being  allowed  to  rise 
not  covered  with  blood,  and  the  moon  being  allowed  to  rise  not 
turned  to  darkness — if  these  things  shall  continue,  my  impression 
is,  that  the  hottest  of  the  Disunionists  will  count  theij  numbers, 
and  they  will  count  the  numbers  on  the  other  side,  and  they  will 
prudently,  upon  a  reconsideration  of  the  whole  matter,  wait  for  a 
more  convenient  season.  (Great  laughter  and  applause.) 

Then,  gentlemen,  is  there  any  thing  to  be  afraid  of?  Are  we 
surrounded  with  terrific  forms  and  shapes,  that  haunt  us  as  we 
pass  along  the  streets,  and  make  the  merchant  tremble  for  his  ship 
upon  the  ocean,  and  the  person  holding  stocks  fear  lest  the  stock 
board  should  show  a  decline  in  his  favorite  securities  ?  Or  are 
persons  who  want  to  speculate  in  property  calculating  the  dura 
tion  of  the  Union,  to  see  whether  land  be  worth  a  year's  value  in 
fee,  or  whether  there  will  be  so  many  people  engaged  in  war  that 
possibly  rents  will  not  be  so  high  as  they  expected  ?  Are  these 
the  considerations  that  we  are  now  called  upon  to  weigh  ?  Are 
we  on  the  borders  of  a  civil  war,  or  are  we  merely  determining  a 
question  of  political  parties?  If  we  are  in  the  former,  then,  gen 
tlemen,  it  requires  very  different  methods  from  any  that  have  been 
taken  heretofore.  It  is  not  a  New  York  or  New  Jersey  contract 

M 


178  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

for  fusion  that  will  avert  that  danger.  Is  there  so  near  a  prospect 
that  the  Union  will  be  broken  up  in  the  event  of  the  triumph  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  ?  Then  why  do  you  not  all  turn  in  and  vote  for  Mr. 
.  Breckinridge,  who  has  the  Disunionists  in  his  ranks  ? — for  they 
will  be  quiet  if  he  be  elected.  Why  does  not  Mr.  Douglas  cease 
his  clamor  about  disunion,  and  get  his  friends  to  unite  throughout 
the  South,  and  likewise  in  the  North,  with  his  political  opponents? 
Or,  gentlemen,  if  we  are  not  to  be  so  generous  as  that,  and  can 
higgle  over  a  matter  of  men  when  the  existence  of  the  govern 
ment  is  at  stake,  as  the  Democrats  say  they  are  the  only  party 
competent  to  preserve  the  Union,  and  they  are  now  in  an  unfortu 
nate  and  distracted  minority,  why  do  they  not  hold  out  the  olive- 
branch  to  us  and  say  "  Know-Nothings  as  you  are — enemies  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  stained  with  midnight  assassination — 
still,  to  save  the  government,  we  will  even  vote  for  }7ou?"  (Great 
applause.) 

That  would  be  a  coalition  equal  to  the  occasion,  as  the  alarmist 
and  agitators  state  it.  There  would  be  a  necessity  which  would 
justify  it.  That  would  be  the  subordination  of  every  political 
division  to  the  existence  of  the  government.  But. this  puling 
question,  "Shall  I  join  with  you,"  "Why,  then,  don't  you  join 
with  me?"  this  miserable  question  as  to  who  shall  have  the  honor 
of  saving  the  government  and  who  shall  make  the  sacrifice,  is  un 
worthy  of  the  crisis  that  Disunionists  and  Union  savers  assert  to 
be  at  hand,  and  which  the  latter  profess  to  desire  to  avert.  In  my 
judgment  the  Union  receives  more  discredit  from  being  saved  all 
the  time  than  it  would  from  being  let  alone  to  save  itself.  (Ap 
plause.)  Thank  Heaven,  it  is  not  a  Maryland  idea;  we  do  not 
deal  with  politics  in  that  way  in  Maryland ;  we  do  not  make  bar 
gains  with  our  political  opponents,  and  lie  down  in  the  same  bed, 
after  they  have  spit  at  us,  over  us,  for  years.  (Applause.)  It  is 
a  New  York  idea,  originating  in  local  hostilities  and  interests— 
which  has  migrated  into  New  Jersey,  and  tends  to  spread.  It 
originated  since  the  Baltimore  Convention,  since  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Bell.  "  Oh !  let  us  make  a  fusion  to  beat  Mr.  Lincoln— 
not  to  elect  Mr.  Bell" — observe  the  phrase — "  to  beat  Mr.  Lin 
coln,"  because  all  these  evils  will  follow  on  his  election !  What 
good  is  that  going  to  do  Mr.  Bell?  ("  That's  it.")  If  there  are 
these  dangers,  the  men  who  cry  out  against  them  ought  to  be 
consistent  in  their  proposals  for  fusion  ;  it  should  be  carried  into 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.        179 

every  Northern  State ;  Mr.  Breckinridge,  Mr.  Douglas,  and  Mr. 
Bell  ought  to  unite  there.  Every  gentleman  in  the  South  ought 
to  be  willing  to  abandon  his  political  diversities  of  opinion  with 
his  neighbor,  and  sacrifice  them  on  the  altar  of  his  country,  if  the 
country  demand  the  sacrifice ;  for  when  the  struggle  is  for  life  or 
death,  for  peace  or  civil  war,  it  is  out  of  place  to  allow  political 
divisions  of  opinion  to  keep  asunder  lovers  of  the  country.  All 
parties  should  be  merged  in  the  presence  of  the  overruling  neces 
sity  of  the  country.  And  when  gentlemen  make  an  argument 
which  should  lead  them  to  subordinate  their  individual  opinions, 
and  lay  them  down  in  that  way  in  order  to  induce  others  to  make 
political  sacrifices,  and  yet  show  no  desire  themselves  to  make 
them,  I  say  it  is  a  cry  of  wolf,  with  no  wolf  threatening  the  fold 
at  all.  "  Oh !  fuse  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  or  Pennsylva 
nia,  for  there  they  are  weak  !"  How  about  Georgia?  What  does 
Mr.  Breckinridge  say  to  that?  How  about  Virginia?  How 
about  South  Carolina?  What  of  Alabama?  What  of  Mississip 
pi?  There  is  no  fusion  there;  it  is  war  to  the  knife  between  the 
Union  savers  on  both  sides.  (Laughter.)  But  up  in  one  or  two 
doubtful  States  in  the  North,  where  men  are  given  to  bargaining, 
and  where  political  principles  are  only  the  counters  laid  down  on 
the  gambling  board,  there  they  can  make  bargains  and  fuse  to 
save  the  Union  (laughter)  and  their  customers. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  disgusted  at  the  suggestion,  and  I  think  the 
honorable  gentlemen  who  have  given  it  their  assent  will  regret 
it  when  it  is  too  late.  I  will  do  any  thing  that  is  honorable  to 
aid  the  election  of  John  Bell  to  the  presidency.  (Great  applause.) 
I  will  not  give  the  lie  to  all  political  truth  by  casting  a  vote  or 
half  a  vote  for  men  with  whom  I  differ  on  every  political  ques 
tion.  (Continued  applause.)  In  the  presence  of  a  common  ene 
my,  politics  is  silent ;  but  as  long  as  it  is  a  question  of  politics, 
my  duty  requires  me  to  vote  for  men  in  whom  I  have  confidence 
personally,  who  I  suppose  will  pursue  those  views  of  policy  that 
I  and  my  friends  believe  to  be  right,  and  to  vote  against  all  who 
are  opposed  to  them.  To  that  extent  I  will  support  John  Bell ; 
bat  I  will  not  vote  for  Mr.  Douglas  to  defeat  Mr.  Lincoln,  nor  for 
any  other  purpose.  (Renewed  applause.) 

Gentlemen,  what  good  is  fusion  going  to  do  Mr.  Bell  ?  If  they 
really  want  to  elect  him,  and  not  merely  to  frighten  weak  people 
into  giving  a  Democrat  a  chance  of  being  elected  before  the  House 


180  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

of  Eepresentatives  or  before  the  Senate,  they  have  a  short  way  to 
do  it.  If  the  case  is  as  grievous  as  they  say,  and  they  believe  it, 
then  it  is  to  them  a  bagatelle  whether  Mr.  Breckinridge  or  Mr. 
Bell  be  President ;  and  if  the  Breckinridge  men  and  Douglas 
men  throughout  the  whole  body  of  the  South  will,  upon  that  one 
ground  (thus  marking  the  earnestness  of  their  belief,  that  the  only 
way  to  avert  revolution  and  disaster,  and  to  keep  their  homes  un 
sullied  and  free  from  the  blood  of  their  wives  and  children,  is  to 
defeat  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  elect  somebody  that  is  safer  and  better), 
vote  for  John  Bell,  it  would  be  something  that  I  could  appreciate. 
They  can  mark  that  feeling  in  a  manner  which  will  speak  in  tones 
of  thunder  to  every  man  of  common  sense  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line ;  they  can  do  it  by  just  casting  their  votes  for  John 
Bell,  and  by  making  the  avowal  that  he  shall  be  President  if  their 
united  votes  can  make  him  so.  And  they  can  say  that  if  they 
fail  there,  then,  if  Mr.  Lane  does  not  come  before  the  Senate,  but 
Mr.  Everett  does,  they,  the  Democrats,  will  vote  Mr.  Everett  into 
the  presidential  chair.  (Great  applause.)  Let  them  say  it,  and 
we  shall  begin  to  believe  that  they  are  in  earnest. 

New  York  politicians  are  very  well  content,  as  they  say,  to  de 
feat  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  let  a  Democrat  be  elected.  They  are  not 
proposing  to  aid  Mr.  Bell,  nor  can  it.  It  only  humbles  his  party ; 
it  deprives  it  of  power  in  the  future ;  it  almost  puts  an  end  to  the 
possibility  of  its  ever  being  powerful  in  a  State  where  it  has  been 
made  a  subject  of  barter  and  sale  upon  'change.  Who  can  fling 
back  a  Democrat's  charge  of  bargain  and  corruption  ?  Who  here 
after  can  ever  cast  in  the  teeth  of  the  Democrats  their  covering 
up  their  divisions  by  compromises?  What  becomes  of  the  per 
petual  assault  upon  them,  that  in  the  South  they  have  one  opin 
ion,  and  in  the  North  another ;  that  in  the  South  they  are  ex 
treme  slavery  men,  and  in  the  North  have  Free-Soilers  in  their 
ranks,  who  receive  their  highest  honors?  Who  hereafter  can 
ever  cast  the  imputation  on  them  that  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act 
was  supported  with  one  signification  in  the  North  and  another  in 
the  South?  Are  not  the  mouths  of  those  who,  differing  from  Mr. 
Douglas  and  Mr.  Breckinridge  on  these  very  points,  yet  agree  to 
give  Mr.  Douglas  say  twenty-five  votes,  in  order  that  they  may 
buy  ten  votes  for  Mr.  Bell — are  not  their  mouths  sealed  forever  ? 

Let  us  work  it  out,  gentlemen,  in  a  national  point  of  view.  Is 
it  wise  thus  to  act?  Where  does  it  send  the  election?  If  sue- 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       181 

cessful,  it  sends  it  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  There  was  a 
time — I  hope  it  has  not  passed,  but  I  fear  that  the  course  of  policy 
which  has  been  pursued  by  a  portion  of  Mr.  Bell's  friends  has  ren 
dered  it  now  almost  impossible — there  was  a  time  when,  had  the 
election  failed  out  of  doors,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  been  defeated,  Mr. 
Bell  would  have  gotten,  in  my  judgment,  and  gotten  cheerfully, 
the  vote  of  every  Republican  State  in  the  lower  House.  The  in 
sane  method  of  assault  upon  and  misrepresentation  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  opinions,  of  the  purposes  of  his  party,  have,  I  fear,  put  an 
end  to  the  possibility  of  a  single  vote  from  that  quarter,  if  the 
election  should  go  to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives.  In  my  judg 
ment,  it  will  be  an  impossibility  to  elect  any  body  there,  such  is 
the  division  of  parties.  The  Kepublicans  have  not  a  majority ; 
the  Democrats  have  not  a  majority ;  the  Americans  have  not  a 
majority. 

The  Eepublicans  and  the  People's  party  have  fifteen  States. 
Possibly  they  might  buy  two,  under  the  enormous  pressure  of 
the  occasion.  (Laughter.)  The  Democrats  have  enough  to  elect, 
^they  can  get  all  the  American  States,  together  with  Oregon  and 
California,  which  now  belong  to  them  in  the  House.  Whether 
they  will  go  that  way  or  not,  it  is  not  my  province  here  to  say ; 
but  it  is  perfectly  certain  that  the  Democratic  States  will  not  go 
for  Mr.  Bell.  Does  any  body  think  they  will?  Look  at  the 
speaker's  election.  Do  not  forget  things  that  have  occurred  with 
in  a  few  months  past.  Go  and  examine  that  list,  and  tell  me 
whether  there  is  a  single  Democratic  State  that,  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  will  cast  its  vote  in  the  House  for  John  Bell.  Then 
there  is  no  election,  and  this  accompanied,  probably,  with  such 
scenes  of  violence  and  tumult  as  possibly  men  of  greater  firmness 
than  I  have  may  desire  to  encounter,  but  from  which  I  pray  to 
be  delivered.  I  have  gone  through  two  contests  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  for  the  election  of  the  comparatively  unimportant 
office  of  speaker  with  the  House  divided  as  it  is  divided  now.  I 
have  seen  these  scenes  of  violence ;  I  have  heard  words  of  men 
ace  ;  I  have  looked  from  day  to  day  to  some  outbreak  that  would 
drench  that  hall  in  blood,  and  be  the  beginning  of  a  real  (and  not 
a  newspaper)  revolution  in  the  country ;  but,  by  the  infinite  bless 
ing  of  Providence,  that  danger  has  been  averted.  I  will  not  rush 
upon  the  bosses  of  His  buckler,  and  tempt  Him  too  far.  I  will 
not  try  that  House  of  Representatives  again  to  do  the  business 


182        SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

which  the  people  ought  to  do,  in  their  majesty  and  in  their  calm 
ness.  (Applause.)  I  will  not  tempt  them  with  the  immense 
bribes  that  can  be  urged — with  the  intensity  of  political  passions 
excited  to  the  uttermost — with  the  fierceness  of  men,  some  of 
them,  possibly,  only  too  willing  to  convert  a  political  into  a  revo 
lutionary  strife  in  that  hall.  I  do  not  wish  to  see  the  immense 
temptations  of  a  presidential  election  forced  on  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  without  a  necessity,  and  only  in  the  last  resort — some 
thing  to  be  shunned,  and  not  to  be  sought  for — something  to  be 
trembled  over  whenever  it  comes — something  to  be  thankful  to 
God  for  if  it  shall  pass  without  civil  violence. 

And  what  next  ?  If  there  be  no  election  by  the  House  when 
the  4th  of  March  comes,  who  is  the  President  ?  The  Vice-Presi 
dent,  elected  by  the  Senate.  Who  are  in  the  Senate  ?  A  clear 
Democratic  majority.  If  Mr.  Lane's  name  goes  to  the  Senate,  of 
course  he  will  be  by  them  cheerfully  elected  President.  But  sup 
pose  Mr.  Everett's  name  goes  to  the  Senate?  Oh,  say  the  confi 
ding  New  Yorkers,  he  will  be  elected  by  the  Democratic  senators. 
Well,  gentlemen,  I  should  go  for  credulity  somewhere  else  than 
the  stock  exchange.  Expect  them  to  elect  Edward  Everett! 
Why,  gentlemen,  they  have  the  game  in  their  own  hands.  I  do 
not  expect  so  much  from  their  liberality.  I  should  rejoice  in  such 
a  result.  Nothing,  after  the  terrific  scenes  in  the  lower  House, 
could  give  this  country  such  peace,  and  quiet,  and  relief  as  to  know 
that,  when  the  wished-for  4th  of  March  shall  come,  such  a  man  as 
Edward  Everett  will  be  in  the  presidency,  no  matter  by  whom  or 
how  chosen.  (Applause.)  But  I  have  not  that  faith  in  the  Dem 
ocratic  senators,  and  I  am  not  sure  they  would  make  an  election 
in  the  Senate,  if  his  name  and  Mr.  Hamlin's  should  be  alone  be 
fore  them. 

I  think  they  might  prefer  rather  to  wait  until  the  4th  of  March, 
let  the  presidential  office  be  vacant,  have  a  year  of  interregnum, 
and  a  new  election,  in  the  midst  of  which,  without  a  head  to  the 
government,  who  will  tell  me  what  would  occur?  Or  they  might 
take  the  other  alternative,  doubtful  in  law,  but  which  they  may 
undertake  to  solve,  and  therefore  may  solve  to  suit  themselves ; 
and,  instead  of  having  an  interregnum,  Mr.  Breckinridge  being 
then  a  member  of  the  Senate,  they  may  elect  him  President  of 
that  body,  and  treat  him  as  President  of  the  United  States  after 
the  4th  of  March.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  appears 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.        183 

to  have  left  a  very  unfortunate,  it  may  prove  some  day  a  very  dan 
gerous  gap.  It  is  possible  that  a  construction  may  close  that  gap, 
but  none  has  closed  it  yet.  It  declares,  in  the  event  of  the  death, 
resignation,  or  disability  of  the  President  and  Yice-President  hap 
pening  after  entrance  into  office,  Congress  may  declare  what  offi 
cer  shall  discharge  the  duties  of  President  till  removal  of  the 
disability,  or  an  election. 

Congress  has  provided  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  becomes, 
for  the  time  being,  the  President,  and  in  his  absence  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  becomes  the  President.  But 
there  seems  to  be  no  provision  for  &  failure  to  elect  both  President 
and  Vice-President.  The  Constitution — and  the  law  which  was 
intended  to  provide  for  the  vacancy  of  the  presidency  follows  the 
language  of  the  Constitution — does  not  authorize  Congress  to  pro 
vide  for  that  case.  There  seems  to  be  no  provision  any  where  for 
the  case  of  the  presidential  office  being  absolutely  vacant  at  the 
commencement  of  a  term — the  case  of  an  absolute  failure  to  elect 
either  a  President  or  Yice-President.  Whether,  in  that  contin 
gency,  the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate  would  assume  to 
exercise  the  powers  of  President  of  the  United  States,  or  whether 
it  would  be  treated  by  the  Senate  (the  only  legal  body  existing 
on  the  4th  of  March)  as  vacant,  no  mind  can  now  determine;  and 
legal  arguments  may  possibly  be  adduced  on  both  sides.  We  may 
very  well  rest  assured  that  the  majority  of  the  Senate  will  settle 
it  in  whichever  way  will  best  suit  their  interests.  It  rests  with 
them ;  it  rests  with  no  one  else ;  you  and  I  have  no  power  over 
it.  When  the  matter  goes  to  the  Senate,  if  they  see  fit  to  make 
no  election,  we  are  pushed  upon  this  dangerous  alternative,  a  va 
cant  or  a  disputed  presidency. 

If  the  people  wish  to  run  afoul  of  these  difficulties,  well  and 
good.  They  were  not  originally  intended  to  be  made  by  bargain 
ing  politicians.  The  provision  of  the  Constitution  is  for  a  case  of 
accident  or  failure,  after  a  bonafide  effort  of  the  people  to  elect, 
not  for  a  conspiracy  of  a  few  politicians  in  a  corner,  in  one  State 
of  the  United  States,  to  adjourn  their  political  difficulties  and  their 
personal  hatreds  into  the  halls  of  Congress.  I  therefore  enter  my 
protest  solemnly  against  any  such  style  of  electioneering.  Others 
may  engage  in  it.  In  the  State  of  New  York  it  is  none  of  my 
business.  I  am  not  called  upon  to  vote  for  Mr.  Douglas  or  Mr. 
Breckinridge,  and  I  have  nothing  more  to  say  about  it,  except 


184  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS  OF  THE 

that  it  is  with  them  ;  but  it  is  not  our  style,  here  in  Maryland,  of 
standing  to  our  principles,  and  conducting  our  canvass,  and  doing 
our  best  to  elect  our  own  candidates.  (Great  applause.) 

What  I  have  said,  gentlemen,  covers  the  exposition  I  desired  to 
make  to  you  this  evening.  I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  great  cry 
about  sectionalism,  and  a  great  scramble  for  the  vacant  title  of 
national.  I  wish,  gentlemen,  that  there  were  a  national  candidate 
for  the  presidency.  I  wish  there  were  a  really  national  party — 
not  merely  one  which  has  principles  that  will  suit  the  whole 
land,  but  one  whose  power  extended  unbroken  from  North  to 
South,  as  did  the  Whig  party  in  its  days  of  glory.  (Applause.) 
I  trust  that,  ere  I  die,  I  shall  again  see  the  lines  of  these  divisions 
obliterated.  But  when  people  talk  about  sectionalism,  and  one 
party  casts  upon  another  the  imputation  of  being  sectional,  I  am 
free,  for  my  part,  to  say  that  they  are  all  sectional,  in  any  proper 
sense.  Mr.  Douglas — is  he  a  national  candidate  ?  He  is,  it' would 
seem,  the  regular  nominee  of  the  Democratic  party;  but  the  Demo 
cratic  party  is  not  the  nation  ;  for  the  regular  Democratic  party 
is  as  much  a  whole  party  as  a  man  is  whole  when  cloven  by  a  sa 
bre  from  head  to  heels.  Where  is  his  strength  ?  In  the  North ! 
He  has  a  few  supporters  in  the  South,  it  is  true.  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge — is  he  a  national  candidate  ?  He  has  great  strength  in  the 
South.  Whether  it  will  be  as  powerful  there  as  he  supposes,  re 
mains  to  be  seen.  Circumstances  now  indicate  that  somebody 
else  will  have  a  say  in  political  matters  in  the  South  besides  the 
Democrats  hereafter;  but  his  strength  is  in  .the  South.  In  the 
North,  it  is  the  shrunk  shank  of  a  decrepit  old  man.  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  strength  is  undoubtedly  in  the  North ;  he  has  supporters 
in  some  of  the  border  slave  States.  Is  not  Mr.  Bell's  strength  in 
the  South,  although  he  has  supporters  sporadically  over  the  whole 
North? 

Gentlemen,  it  is  the  misery  of  our  condition  that,  turn  wherever 
we  may,  we  find  that  this  infernal  strife  has  split  every  body  into 
a  thousand  pieces,  and  no  man  can  tell  where  to  find  the  piece 
that  belongs  to  him.  (Laughter.)  Nay,  more,  gentlemen,  if  I 
may  be  allowed  to  quote  words  which  I  heard  in  a  sacred  place, 
from  a  very  eloquent  gentleman  [Kev.  Mr.  Stockton],  whom  doubt 
less  many  of  you  have  heard  in  the  pulpit  here  in  Baltimore,  I 
say  of  the  condition  of  the  people  of  this  country  and  its  party, 
especially  of  that  great  opposition  party  to  the  Democrats  which 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT  OF  MARYLAND.       185 

now  is  rent  into  fragments  and  struggling  together,  as  he  said  of 
the  Christian  religion — that  the  vase  in  which  the  precious  spirit 
of  Christianity  was  held  had  been  broken  by  sectarian  strife  into 
so  many  pieces,  that  not  only  was  its  beauty  marred  and  gone, 
and  its  precious  essence  poured  out  and  lost,  but  that  he  who,  on 
a  mission  of  love,  attempted  to  collect  its  fragments  and  put  them 
together,  was  in  danger,  in  the  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  vase,  of 
cutting  his  fingers.  It  is  the  danger — it  is  the  sickness  of  the 
times;  and,' instead  of  attemptng  to  cure  it,  men  who  ought  to 
know  better  are  acting  so  as  to  aggravate  it.  The  patient  is  in  a 
fever,  and  they  wrap  him  up  in  blankets.  His  blood  is  boiling, 
and  they  dose  him  with  strong  drinks  and  fire-water,  and  call 
that — curing ! 

Gentlemen,  there  is  a  degree  of  timidity  that  is,  of  all  things  in 
my  j  udgment,  the  most  dangerous  in  political  life.  Half  the  blood 
that  was  shed  in  the  French  Revolution  was  shed  from  sheer  ter 
ror.  It  was  not  courage,  it  was  not  ferocity,  it  was  sheer  terror, 
that  made  them  cut  their  neighbors'  throats  to-day,  lest  those 
neighbors  should  cut  theirs  to-morrow.  That  is  the  state  of  mind 
in  which  the  conduct  of  too  many  in  this  canvass  tends  to  throw 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  I  lift  my  voice  against  it. 

Whether  these  sentiments  are  popular  here  or  not  is  to  me  a 
matter  of  secondary  moment.  I  have  a  duty  to  perform  to  my 
self  as  well  as  to  you.  I  agree  with  that  most  honorable  and  dis 
tinguished  gentleman,  my  friend,  Mr.  Millson,  of  Norfolk,  who,  in 
his  late  letter,  said,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  that  he  thought  it  his 
duty  to  warn  his  constituents,  as  well  when  there  was  danger  of 
invasion  of  their  rights  as  when,  in  point  of  fact,  there  was  none. 
And,  acting  upon  that  high  principle,  I  say  here  now,  this  night, 
that  peace  is  within  our  grasp,  if  we  only  see  fit  to  hold  fast  to  it. 
If  we  choose  to  encourage  war,  we  may  encourage  it  too  far. 

Gentlemen,  there  has  been  a  sort  of  hesitation  on  the  part  of 
the  opponents  of  the  Democratic  party  to  meet  them  directly  in 
the  eye,  to  make  formally  the  issue  with  them  as  to  the  correctness 
and  safety  of  their  principles  and  policy,  and  their  mode  of  con 
ducting  the  government.  And  the  reason  the  opposition  have 
failed  in  other  parts  of  the  South  is,  in  my  judgment,  because  they 
have  not  met  the  Democrats  in  that  way ;  the  reason  that  we  have 
not  failed  in  Maryland  is  because  we  have  not  been  afraid  to  strike 
a  blow  that  would  overthrow  our  enemy.  (Applause.)  It  only 


186  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORS,  ETC. 

requires  that  there  should  be  energy  and  union,  and  the  day  is 
ours. 

Gibbon  tells  us  that,  as  Christianity  progressed  and  spread  as 
far  as  Egypt,  the  idols  roused  the  ire  of  the  faithful.  There  was 
at  Alexandria  an  image  of  Serapis,  which  superstitious  faith  in 
ancient  prophecies  protected  from  their  iconoclastic  rage. 

"It  was  confidently  affirmed  that,  if  any  impious  hand  should  dare  to  violate  the 
majesty  of  the  god,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  would  instantly  return  to  their  original 
chaos.  An  intrepid  soldier,  animated  by  zeal,  and  armed  with  a  mighty  battle-axe, 
ascended  the  ladder ;  and  even  the  Christian  multitude  expected  with  some  anxiety 
the  event  of  the  combat.  He  aimed  a  vigorous  stroke  against  the  cheek  of  Se 
rapis  ;  the  cheek  fell  to  the  ground  ;  the  thunder  was  still  silent,  and  both  the  heav 
ens  and  the  earth  continued  to  preserve  their  accustomed  order  and  tranquillity. 
The  victorious  soldier  repeated  his  blows ;  the  huge  idol  was  overthrown  and  broken 
in  pieces,  and  the  limbs  of  Serapis  were  ignominiously  dragged  through  the  streets 
of  Alexandria.  His  mangled  carcass  was  burnt  in  the  amphitheatre,  amid  the 
shouts  of  the  populace ;  and  many  persons  attribute  their  conversion  to  this  discov 
ery  of  the  impotence  of  their  tutelar  deity." 

Gentlemen,  smite  fearlessly  the  Democratic  party  !  The  Union 
will  survive  its  fragments.  (Enthusiastic  applause.) 


ADDEESS  TO  THE  VOTEES  OF  THE  FOUETH 
CONGRESSIONAL  DISTEICT. 

THE  election  in  November,  18GO,  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  the  success  of  the  Republican  party.  The  leaders  in  the  South  now 
set  about  the  work  of  making  good  the  threats  which  had  thus  proved 
useless  for  again  driving  the  North  and  West  to  submission.  Unwilling 
to  afford  a  breathing  space  or  moment  for  reflection  to  the  people,  which 
they  knew  must  prevent  the  consummation  of  such  suicidal  folly,  they 
at  once,  the  result  of  the  election  being  ascertained,  proceeded  to  carry 
out  the  conspiracy.  The  first  cry  was  raised  in  Charleston,  and  the  Gov 
ernor  of  South  Carolina  at  once  recommended  to  the  Legislature  that 
steps  should  be  taken  for  the  assembling  of  a  "Sovereign  Convention." 
Similar  proceedings  were  had  in  the  Gulf  States,  and  every  where 
throughout  the  South  the  emissaries  of  sedition,  secession,  and  disunion 
were  traveling  to  and  fro  to  finish  the  work  they  had  undertaken.  The 
Secretary  of  War  of  the  United  States  (Floyd)  had  joined  the  conspira 
cy,  and  had  accumulated  large  quantities  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war 
at  the  arsenals,  forts,  and  military  posts  belonging  to  the  United  States 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  had,  at  the  same  time,  in  pursuance  of  the 
wishes  of  the  Southern  conspirators,  removed  all  the  larger  garrisons 
from  those  posts,  and  sent  them  to  the  Northwest,  and  to  other  remote 
and  not  easily  accessible  points. 

The  militia  in  the  Southern  States  were  called  out,  were  armed,  uni 
formed,  and  drilled.  Their  cities  and  chief  towns  were  filled  with  vol 
unteers  and  armed  men,  called  out  "  to  defend  the  State  from  invasion," 
and  "  to  drive  back  the  Abolition  and  Black  Republican  hordes." 

The  people  of  the  Northern  and  Western  States  could  not  at  first  be 
brought  to  believe  that  the  attempt  at  disunion  would  really  be  made. 
They  had  heard,  on  many  previous  occasions,  the  same  threats  by  South 
Carolina,  which  had  failed  either  before  the  resolution  of  Andrew  Jackson 
or  the  good  sense  of  the  Southern  people.  And  now  they  saw  no  more 
cause  for  alarm  in  the  South  than  before  ;  they  readily,  therefore,  supposed 
the  tumult  would  be  quieted  by  the  firmness  of  the  federal  government 
and  on  appeal  to  the  Southern  popular  vote.  They  were  ignorant  of  the 
extent,  of  the  violence,  of  the  intimidation  of  the  conspiracy,  of  the  num 
bers  of  the  conspirators,  of  their  positions  in  the  cabinet,  and  in  the  high 
est  offices  of  the  government.  To  this  state  of  ignorance  rapidly  succeeded 


188          ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS  OF  THE 

one  of  alarm  and  anxiety,  as  other  Southern  States  prepared  to  abet 
South  Carolina,  when  the  Congress  met  on  the  3d  of  December.  When 
the  President's  Message  was  delivered,  the  country  was  surprised  by  the 
announcement  that,  if  federal  officers  within  a  State  should  all  resign, 
or  be  prevented  ly  state  legislation  from  executing  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  and  such  State  should  undertake  to  withdraw  from  the  confeder 
acy,  there  was  no  power  given  to  the  Executive,  or  "  delegated  by  the 
Constitution  to  the  Congress,"  to  use  force,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  com 
pel  the  execution  of  the  federal  laws ;  that,  even  if  Congress  possessed 
this  power,  "  the  object  of  which  doubtless  would  be  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,"  yet  the  exercise  thereof,  when  indispensable,  would  be  the 
surest  means  of  destroying  what  it  alone  could  uphold  ;  and  that  the 
"confederacy"  (meaning  the  United  States)  was  afflicted  with  a  deep- 
seated  inherent  defect,  or  fatal  mistake,  as  regards  the  propriety  of  the 
power,  if  given,  in  its  Constitution.  To  remedy  this,  after  quoting  the 
Virginia  Resolutions  of  1799,  Mr.  Buchanan  thought  "an  explanatory 
amendment"  of  the  Constitution  was  advisable,  and  exhibited  the  follow 
ing  prescription : 

1 .  An  express  recognition  of  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  in  the 
States  where  it  now  exists,  or  may  hereafter  exist. 

2.  The  duty  of  protecting  this  right  in  all  the  common  Territories, 
throughout  their  territorial  existence,  and  until  they  shall  be  admitted 
as  States  into  the  Union,  with  or  without  slavery,  as  their  Constitutions 
may  prescribe. 

3.  A  like  recognition  of  the  right  of  the  master  to  have  his  slave,  who 
has  escaped  from  one  State  to  another,  restored  and  "delivered  up"  to 
him  ;  and  of  the  validity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  enacted  for  this  pur 
pose,  together  with  a  declaration  that  all  State  laAvs  impairing  or  defeat 
ing  this  right  are  violations  of  the  Constitution,  and  arc  consequently 
null  and  void. 

On  the  4th  of  December  the  House  resolved  that  so  much  of  the  Pres 
ident's  Message  as  relates  to  the  present  perilous  condition  of  the  coun 
try  be  referred  to  a  special  committee  of  one  from  each  State.  On  the 
Gth  Mr.  Davis  was  named  as  the  member  from  Maryland,  and  Mr.  -Cor- 
win,  of  Ohio,  was  chairman. 

On  the  21st  the  representatives  from  South  Carolina  announced  their 
withdrawal,  as  a  consequence  of  the  ordinance  by  which  "  the  people  of 
South  Carolina,  in  their  sovereign  capacity,  had  resumed  the  powers 
heretofore  delegated  by  them  to  the  Federal  government  of  the  United 
States."  The  same  performance  was  gone  through  by  the  Mississippi 
delegation  on  the  12th  of  January;  by  the  majority  of  the  Alabama 
delegation  on  the  21st;  by  Georgia  (Mr.  Hill  resigned)  on  the  23d;  by 
Florida  (in  the  Senate)  on  the  25th  ;  and  on  the  5th  of  February  by  the 
Louisiana  representatives,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Bouligny. 


FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT.  189 

In  view  of  the  condition  of  affairs  at  New  Year,  1861,  Mr.  Davis 
wrote  from  Washington  the  following  letter  to  his  constituents  of  the 
Fourth  District  of  Maryland : 

January  2, 1861. 

IT  is  my  right  and  mj  duty  as  your  representative  to  warn  you 
of  the  danger  which  threatens  the  destruction  of  the  government, 
and  to  overwhelm  you  beneath  its  ruins. 

The  first  act  of  the  drama  of  revolution  was  opened  in  South 
Carolina. 

Ambitious  and  restless  men,  availing  themselves  of  factitious 
fear  which  they  have  inspired,  and  sectional  passions  which  they 
have  inflamed,  are  conspiring  the  overthrow  of  the  government. 
They  hope  to  found  a  Southern  Confederacy  on  the  fragments  of 
the  United  States  of  America. 

Maryland  has  been  formally  asked  to  join  a  Southern  Confed 
eracy.  The  advocates  of  ruin  speciously  deny  their  treasonable 
plans  under  the  form  of  Southern  prejudice,  and  ask  if  Maryland 
will  desert  the  South  and  join  the  North.  But  that  is  not  the 
question  which  Maryland  is  called  on  to  answer. 

Maryland  is  now  joined  to  both  the  free  and  the  slave  States, 
under  the  wisest  Constitution,  and  by  the  best  government  the 
world  ever  saw. 

That  government  has  never  wronged  her,  or  failed  to  protect 
her.  The  formation  of  a  Southern  Confederacy  must  be  preceded 
by  the  destruction  of  that  government.  Till  it  is  broken  up  and 
its  armies  defeated,  there  can  be  no  Southern  Confederacy.  Mary 
land  is  therefore  asked,  not  whether  she  prefers  to  enter  a  North 
ern  or  a  Southern  Confederacy,  but  she  is  asked  to  form  a  coali 
tion  to  break  up  and  destroy  the  Constitution  which  Washington 
founded,  and  to  plunge  into  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war,  for  the 
purpose  of  creating  a  Southern  Confederacy. 

That  is  the  true  question  you  have  to  consider,  for  peaceful  se 
cession  is  a  delusion ;  and  if  you  yield  to  the  arts  now  employed 
to  delude  you,  the  soil  of  Maryland  will  be  trampled  by  armies 
struggling  for  the  national  capital.  The  only  question  is,  Will 
you  fight  to  maintain  or  to  destroy  the  existing  government? 

The  interests  of  Maryland  are  indissolubly  connected  with  the 
integrity  of  the  United  States ;  any  division  of  the  confederacy  is 
to  her  fatal. 

Maryland  has  not  an  interest  that  will  survive  the  government 


190  ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS  OF 

under  the  Constitution.  No  matter  what  new  combinations  arise, 
whether  Maryland  stand  alone,  or  unites  her  fate  to  any  new  con 
federacy  on  her  northern  or  her  southern  border,  she  is  utterly 
ruined  and  prostrate  for  this  generation  at  least.  When  she  will 
revive,  God  only  knows. 

If  the  present  government  be  destroyed,  Maryland  slaveholders 
lose  the  only  guarantee  for  the  return  of  their  slaves.  •  Every  com 
mercial  line  of  communication  is  severed.  Custom-house  barriers 
arrest  her  merchants  at  every  frontier.  Her  commerce  on  the 
ocean  is  the  prey  of  every  pirate,  or  the  sport  of  every  maritime 
power.  Her  great  railroad  loses  every  connection  which  makes 
it  valuable.  If  two  republics  divide  the  territory  of  the  United 
States,  Maryland  is  ruined  whichever  she  join.  If  the  South,  her 
slaves  will  walk  over  the  Pennsylvania  line  unmolested.  The 
African  slave-trade  will  reduce  their  market  value  below  the  cost 
of  raising  or  supporting  them ;  and,  if  they  did  not  abscond,  they 
would  be  abandoned  by  their  masters. 

Free  trade  will  open  every  port,  and  cotton  and  woolen  facto 
ries,  and  the  iron  and  machine  works  of  Maryland  would  be  pros 
trate  before  European  competition.  The  expenses  of  govern 
ment  must  be  doubled  by  the  necessity  of  a  large  standing  army, 
for  all  the  conditions  of  present  security  will  be  gone ;  and  a  great 
Northern  power,  divided  from  us  by  an  air-line,  will  be  an  ever- 
impending  danger. 

In  the  war  of  separation,  and  even  after,  Maryland  will  be  an 
outgoing  province,  without  a  fortification  or  a  natural  boundary, 
always  overrun  at  the  first  sound  of  arms,  incapable  of  being  de 
fended  by  the  weaker  power,  of  which  she  will  form  a  part,  whose 
natural  line  of  defense  must  be  the  Potomac,  and  on  this  side  of 
which  no  Southern  army  would  venture  a  decisive  battle. 

The  hope  that  Baltimore  will  be  the  emporium  of  such  a  re 
public  is  a  delusion  too  ridiculous  to  need  refutation.  Nothing 
intended  for  the  South  will  ever  pass  Norfolk,  and  from  the  West 
we  will  be  severed  by  custom-houses,  duties,  and  political  antipa 
thies  in  favor  of  New  York. 

Is  not  a  Southern  republic  ruin  to  Maryland?  Joining  a 
Northern  one  is  equally  so,  if  stated  lines  define  the  limits  of  the 
two  republics.  The  slave  interest  will  be  immediately  destroyed ; 
the  great  railroad  to  the  West  is  cut  off  at  Harper's  Ferry  ;  and 
Baltimore  becomes  a  tributary  to  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Eoad. 


THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT. 

All  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  trade  is  gone,  and  her  foreign 
commerce  can  seek  the  ocean  only  by  favor  of  Virginia,  or  under 
the  guns  of  a  powerful  navy.  In  war  still  we  are  the  frontier, 
and  our  soil  will  be  desolated  by  the  contending  armies. 

Our  manufacturing  interests  will  be  better  secured,  our  military 
frontier  better  protected  by  the  Potomac,  our  foreign  commerce 
will  have  the  protection  of  a  maritime  power,  and  we  shall  be  free 
from  the  humiliation  of  a  European  protectorate;  but  the  sudden 
and  absolute  destruction  of  the  slaveholding  interest,  and  the  rad 
ical  change  in  the  relations  of  our  population,  will  give  a  shock 
to  our  internal  quiet  and  prosperity  that  neither  this  nor  the  next 
generation  will  recover  from. 

But  there  can  be  no  such  division  of  this  Confederacy  by  ex 
isting  State  lines.  The  present  territory  has  been  acquired  and 
divided  to  be  used  as  a  whole,  bound  by  the  common  ties  of  the 
Constitution,  and  the  course  of  trade  is  arranged  accordingly. 
Break  it  in  any  part,  and  it  will  fly  into  a  thousand  pieces  like  a 
Prince  Eupert's  drop. 

"Western  Virginia  belongs  to  the  Yalley  of  the  Mississippi. 
Virginia  can  never  withdraw  from  the  existing  Confederacy  un 
divided  ;  her  western  boundary  will  be  the  Blue  Eidge.  Mary 
land  will  be  swayed  by  adverse  forces,  which  will  probably  give 
her  northern  and  western  counties  to  Pennsylvania ;  her  penin 
sular  to  Virginia,  unless  a  civil  war  shall  first  have  desolated  and 
subdued  them. 

Whatever  the  sympathies  of  her  commercial  emporium  may  be 
in  the  present  political  heats,  yet,  when  the  conditions  which  gave 
rise  to  them  are  gone  with  the  present  government,  her  interests 
will  find  a  voice,  and  a  decisive  voice,  in  determining  her  future 
relations.  What  they  shall  be  I  trust  in  God  may  never  be  de 
cided. 

With  these  consequences  before  their  eyes,  there  are  yet  men 
in  Maryland  who  seem  madly  bent  on  revolution,  and  conspira 
tors  beyond  her  limits  instigate  and  aid  their  efforts.  To  the  suc 
cess  of  their  schemes  the  convocation  of  the  Legislature  is  essen 
tial. 

In  securing  that  object  many  unite  who  are  strangers  to  their 
purposes,  and  blind  to  the  consequences  of  what  they  are  doing 
—men  who  honestly  think  there  is  danger  it  might  avert,  or  that 
there  ought  to  be  an  agreement  or  understanding  with  Virginia, 


192  ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS  OF 

or  who  are  moved  by  sympathy  with  neighboring  agitators,  or 
wish  to  gain  party  advantages,  or  play  a  political  game,  or  are  in 
terested  in  the  corrupt  and  active  lobby.  They  are  all  the  allies, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  of  the  revolutionists. 

The  revolutionary  agitators,  existing  elsewhere  in  the  republic, 
will  be  aggravated  by  a  call  of  the  Maryland  Legislature.  It  will 
look  like  sympathy  with  the  revolutionary  States.  It  will  dis 
hearten  the  friends  of  the  government  in  those  States.  It  will  in 
spire  the  revolutionists  in  the  Central  States,  now  in  hopeless  mi 
nority,  with  new  hopes.  It  will  tend  to  destroy  the  moderate 
feelings  of  the  free  States  in  dealing  with  the  existing  discontent. 
It  will  greatly  embarrass  the  President,  who  must  maintain  the 
authority  of  the  laws,  and  is  entitled  to  the  undivided  support  of 
the  people  of  Maryland  for  that  purpose. 

The  halls  of  legislation  will  immediately  become  the  focus  of 
revolutionary  conspiracy.  Under  specious  pretexts,  the  people 
will  be  implicated,  by  consultations  with  other  States,  by  concert 
ed  plans,  by  inadmissible  demands,  by  extreme  and  offensive  pre 
tensions,  in  a  deeply-laid  scheme  of  simultaneous  revolt,  in  the 
event  of  the  inevitable  failure  to  impose  on  the  free  States  the  ul 
timatum  of  the  slave  States.  Maryland  will  find  herself  severed 
from  more  than  half  the  States,  plunged  in  anarchy,  and  wrapped 
in  the  flames  of  civil  war,  waged  by  her  against  the  government 
in  which  we  now  glory. 

In  the  face  of  such  consequences,  what  justification,  what  ex 
cuse  is  there  for  convening  the  Legislature?  Within  its  consti 
tutional  powers  it  can  do  nothing,  and  there  is  nothing  for  it  to  do. 

The  only  danger  to  Maryland  in  the  present  crisis  is  that  re 
bellious  States  may  destroy  the  United  States,  and  that  to  her  is 
absolute  ruin ;  but  against  that  her  only  and  sufficient  security  is 
the  power  of  the  United  States  government,  supported  by  the 
loyal  devotion  of  the  people  outside  of  the  disaffected  States. 
Maryland  can  not  suppress  revolution  in  South  Carolina,  and 
neither  South  Carolina  nor  any  other  State  threatens  Maryland 
with  invasion  or  any  other  danger.  Congress  and  the  President 
are  vested  exclusively  with  the  power  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the 
Union,  and  every  person  in  Maryland,  as  in  all  the  other  central 
slave  States,  is  bound  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  President  for  that 
purpose,  any  thing  in  their  laws  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
The  Legislatures  can,  therefore,  do  nothing  in  the  matter. 


THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT.  193 

But  many  persons  clamor  for  the  Legislature  in  order  that  it 
may  agree  with  Virginia,  or  with  other  slave  States,  on  a  course 
of  conduct 

The  Constitution  forbids  any  agreement  between  Maryland  and 
any  other  States  for  any  purpose. 

Not  only  does  the  10th  section  of  the  first  article  of  the  Consti 
tution  declare  that  "no  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance, 
or  confederation,"  but  it  also  says  u  no  State  shall,  without  the 
consent  of  Congress,  enter  into  any  agreement  or  compact  with  another 
State,  or  with  a  foreign  power ;  and  Article  VI.  declares  this  Con 
stitution  to  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  of  Virginia  as  well  as 
of  Maryland;  and  that  the  members  of  the  several  State  Legisla 
tures,  and  all  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  the  several  States, 
shall  be  bound  by  oath  or  affirmation  to  support  this  Constitution.'1'1 

Are  the  members  of  the  Legislature  to  violate  their  oath  ?  If 
not,  there  can  be  no  consultation ;  if  they  are,  then  it  is  not  to 
preserve  the  Constitution,  but  to  promote  its  destruction  by  rev 
olution,  that  the  Legislature  is  to  be  convened. 

The  Legislature  can,  within  its  constitutional  power,  do  noth 
ing.  It  is  as  unconstitutional  to  make  an  agreement  with  Vir 
ginia  as  it  would  be  with  France. 

An  agreement  to  consult  to  have  any  common  purpose,  any 
concerted  action,  is  expressly  forbidden ;  for,  if  allowed,  the  United 
States  might  be  defied  by  a  coalition  too  powerful  to  be  suppress 
ed  without  arms,  and  the  laws  of  the  Union  be  enforced  only  at 
the  hazard  of  civil  war. 

The  prevailing  discontents,  the  inflamed  state  of  public  feeling, 
which  now  prompt  men  and  states  to  consult,  are  the  very  dan 
gers  the  constitutional  prohibition  was  intended  to  guard  against. 
Southern  States  only  now  think  of  a  coalition ;  but  what  should 
we  say  of  a  free-state  coalition  to  repeal  the  constitutional  guaran 
tee  of  the  slavery  interest  ? 

A  Convention  of  the  central  slave  States  is  equally  unconstitu 
tional,  dangerous,  and  needless.  Whatever  it  can  do,  which  is 
not  unconstitutional  and  mischievous,  can  be  better  done  without 
it.  Is  it  to  propose  amendments  to  the  Constitution  ?  No  body 
authorized  to  amend  could  even  consider  the  proposal. 

But  Congress,  on  the  application  of  the  Legislatures  of  two 
thirds  of  the  States,  can  call  a  Convention  of  ALL  the  States,  and 
that  can  remedy  every  grievance.  Is  it  to  secure  agreement  on 

N 


194  ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS  OF 

the  same  amendments?  Their  representatives  in  Congress  are 
the  constitutional  representatives  of  the  States  in  the  only  body 
where  the  States  are  permitted  to  consult,  and  they  can  there 
move  any  amendments  they  may  concur  in  thinking  necessary; 
and  those  amendments  will,  under  the  Constitution,  be  formally 
sent  for  approval  to  all  the  States.  Is  it  to  agree  upon  demands 
to  be  made  on  the  free  States,  on  refusal  of  which  nothing  is  to 
follow  ?  Then  why  assemble  it  ? 

But  is  the  purpose  of  it  to  combine  the  central  slave  States  in 
demands  on  the  free  States,  accompanied  with  the  menace  of  rev 
olution,  in  the  event  of  their  refusal  to  submit  to  the  dictation  ? 
Then  the  Convention  is  a  treasonable  assembly  to  levy  war  for 
the  overthrow  of  the  government. 

Such  a  consultation  among  the  central  slave  States,  where  no 
voice  from  the  free  States  will  be  heard,  and  their  feelings  and 
wishes  will  be  wholly  disregarded,  and  where  the  more  extreme 
opinions  of  the  slave  States  will  predominate,  is  likely  to  result  in 
a  demand  of  concessions  wholly  impossible  to  be  maintained,  ac 
companied  by  the  implied  pledge  not  to  be  satisfied  with  any 
thing  less ;  and  on  the  refusal  of  the  free  States  to  submit  to  terms 
thus  dictated  without  any  consultation  with  them,  the  revolution 
ists  will  precipitate  the  whole  of  the  consulting  States  into  revolu 
tion.  This  I  believe  to  be  the  most  natural  result  of  the  proposed 
consultation.  I  presume  the  revolutionists  have  not  been  so  dull 
as  to  overlook  it. 

Maryland  is  not  ready  to  be  entrapped.  Her  people  are  the 
best  guardians  of  their  own  interests,  duty,  and  honor.  It  is  for 
them  now  to  demand  of  those  who  counsel  a  Convention  of  the 
central  slave  States  to  specify  whether  there  are,  in  the  words  of 
President  Jackson,  u  any  acts  so  plainly  unconstitutional  and  so  in 
tolerably  oppressive"  to  them  that  they  are  willing  to  tear  the  gov 
ernment  to  pieces  in  the  pursuit  of  redress. 

If  there  be  such  acts,  then  convene  the  Legislature ;  assemble  a 
Convention ;  concert  with  Virginia  measures  of  resistance  in  de 
fault  of  redress ;  but  also  let  the  people  prepare  their  hearts  for 
WAR,  and  their  fields  for  desolation,  and  their  children  for  slaugh 
ter.  Let  them  prepare  for  an  era  of  proscriptions,  confiscations, 
and  exiles,  to  be  followed  by  anarchy,  and  be  closed  by  the  rude 
despotism  of  the  sword. 

But  if  there  be  no  such  grievances  which  justify,  in  the  eye  of 


THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT.  195 

reason,  encountering  those  consequences,  then  let  the  people  of 
Maryland  not  allow  themselves  to  be  seduced  by  insidious  wiles, 
under  plausible  disguises,  into  measures  which,  whatever  may  be 
their  professed  objects,  tend  to  such  results,  and  must  bring  them 
forth. 

"Will  any  one  propose  gravely  to  rush  on  such  ruin  because  a 
few  negroes  have  run  away  and  not  been  caught — because  some 
liberty  bills  have  been  passed  and  never  acted  on — because  a  mob, 
once  in  a  while,  has  resisted  an  unpopular  law — because  Maryland 
has  been  in  a  minority  on  a  presidential  election  ?  Or  are  there 
any  other  grievances  for  which  revolution  is  considered  the  only 
adequate  remedy  ? 

Is  it  the  personal  liberty  bills  ? 

They  exist  in  only  a  few  of  the  free  States.  They  do  not  exist 
in  any  one  of  the  free  States  coterminous  with  the  slave  States. 
They  are  all  remote  from  us,  where  a  negro  hardly  ever  goes.  It 
is  not  known  that  they  ever  aid  a  single  negro  to  escape.  The 
courts  of  the  United  States  have  always  declared  them  void,  and 
it  is  only  in  the  courts  that  a  free  country  enforces  any  law.  It 
is  probable  they  soon  will  be  repealed,  and  vanish  with  the  tem 
porary  excitement  which  occasioned  them. 

They  have  been  suffered  to  exist  more  than  two  administra 
tions  without  any  one  in  Maryland  dreaming  of  revolutionary 
redress. 

Is  it  the  failure  to  enforce  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  ? 

The  States  are  not  charged  with  that  duty  at  all.  It  is  imposed 
on  the  United  States  government,  and  the  right  to  claim  fugitive 
slaves  exists  only  so  long  as  the  Constitution  exists.  It  is  certain 
that  the  dissolution  of  the  government  repeals  and  annuls  this 
law,  and  that  is  therefore  no  redress. 

If  mobs  have  occasionally  interfered  to  rescue  fugitives,  they 
have  been  successful  only  occasionally.  The  guilty  parties  have 
frequently  been  punished  by  both  State  and  federal  courts,  and  it 
is  probable  that  they  can  be  entirely  avoided  by  a  reasonable 
change  in  the  law  itself.  Is  a  government  to  be  destroyed  because 
a  mob  makes  a  rescue  ? 

Are  we  to  make  a  revolution  because  we  can  not  catch  a  fugi 
tive  in  a  free  State,  whom  we  have  already  failed  to  catch  in  a 
slave  State? 

But  the  Territories,  they  must  be  adjusted;  the  rights  of  the 


196  ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS  OF 

South  must  be  acknowledged.  Are  the  people  of  Maryland 
dreaming  of  a  revolution  in  the  event  of  a  failure  to  resettle  the 
Territorial  Question  to  the  satisfaction  of  Southern  secessionists? 

Is  Maryland  so  discontented  with  the  actual  condition  of  the 
Territories  that  she  will  aid  in  destroying  the  government  unless 
it  be  changed?  I  will  not  believe  in  such  madness. 

No  change  has  taken  place  since  Mr.  Clay's  adjustment  of  1850 
but  at  the  instance  of  the  slave  States ;  that  change  was  the  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  Act  of  1854,  which  repealed  the  Missouri  line,  in 
order  to  substitute  what  was  called  the  principles  of  the  act  of 
1850  ;  and  at  that  time  all  the  Territories  were  in  fact  free. 

Slavery  has,  in  point  of  fact,  been  introduced  into  New  Mexico 
by  the  people  under  the  act  of  1850.  Slavery  has  not  been  in 
troduced  into  Utah,  nor  Kansas,  nor  .Nebraska,  under  the  law  of 
1854  The  only  Territory  south  of  36°  80'  is  New  Mexico;  all 
the  residue  of  the  Territories  are  north  of  that  line.  Now  we  are 
in  danger  of  civil  war  unless,  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  we  establish  slavery  south  of  36°  30' — not  merely  in  New 
Mexico,  but  in  all  territory  hereafter  to  be  acquired.  No  man 
who  values  the  peace  of  the  country  can  assent  to  that  bribe  to 
filibustering. 

But,  touching  the  Territory  now  to  be  disposed  of,  while  the 
people  of  the  free  States  will  refuse  the  proposed  amendment  be 
cause  it  makes  them  establish  slavery,  they  will  probably  agree  to 
make  New  Mexico  a  State,  and  that  removes  it  beyond  the  med 
dling  of  Congress. 

The  Committee  of  Thirty-three  have,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Adams, 
agreed  to  recommend  it,  and  New  Mexico  includes  all  the  terri 
tory  south  of  36°  30'. 

Shall  we  break  up  the  government  because  the  free  States  re 
fuse  to  do  what  Mr.  Clay  refused  to  do  touching  this  Terri 
tory? 

Fellow-citizens,  the  Territorial  Question  is  of  no  practical  im 
portance  to  you ;  it  is  merely  the  pretext  to  entangle  you  in  the 
plots  against  your  peace.  If  by  common  consent  any  change  can 
be  made  which  will  silence  clamor,  or  soothe  the  sensibilities,  or 
satisfy  the  jealousies  excited  by  recent  contest,  let  that  change  be 
made.  But  that  is  the  only  interest  you  have  in  any.  change ; 
and  if  none  can  be  obtained  of  that  character^  it  is  our  policy  to  let 
the  question  alone,  and  to  make  others  let  it  alone. 


THE  FOURTH  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT.  197 

The  existing  condition  of  the  Territories  is  better  than  agita 
tion  for  any  change. 

If  discontented  men  attempt  to  destroy  the  government  because 
it  is  not  changed  to  suit  them,  the  right  and  the  duty,  the  highest 
interest  and  the  loyal  honor  of  Maryland,  require  her  to  sustain 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  the  Constitution,  which  are  her 
only  safety.  Let  us  not  countenance  revolutionary  violence  to 
redress  imaginary  wrongs  by  impossible  measures. 

Mr.  Adams's  proposition  to  admit  New  Mexico  as  a  State,  and 
to  amend  the  Constitution  so  as  to  prohibit  any  chance  in  it  here 
after  by  which  slavery  in  the  States  can  be  affected,  unless  upon 
the  proposal  of  a  slave  State,  concurred  in  by  all  the  States ;  the 
repeal  of  the  liberty  bills ;  and  a  just  modification  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  ought  to  close  the  Slavery  controversy  forever — cer 
tainly  till  some  rash  conquest  shall  reopen  it. 

Or  are  we  to  destroy  the  Constitution  because  Mr.  Lincoln  has 
been  elected  according  to  its  provisions  ? 

The  existing  prostration  of  commerce  and  industry ;  the  idle 
ships ;  the  accumulated  merchandise  and  produce ;  the  unem 
ployed  artisans,  laborers,  and  mechanics ;  the  stinted  allowance  of 
their  families ;  and  the  desolate  prospect  of  the  winter — these  are 
the  points,  not  of  the  acts  of  South  Carolina,  nor  of  the  threat 
ened  revolution  in  two  or  three  of  the  Gulf  States,  but  of  the 
doubtful  loyalty  of  the  Central  States — of  the  threats  of  designing 
politicians  to  resist  the  government  unless  their  extreme  preten 
sions  are  acknowledged — of  the  agitation  of  men's  minds  occa 
sioned  by  extraordinary  elections  —  the  assembling  of  Legisla 
tures — the  meeting  of  State  Conventions — and  the  menace  of  a 
Convention  of  the  central  slave  States  to  array  them  in  opposi 
tion  to  the  United  States.  Maryland  alone  is  guiltless  of  this 
great  error.  Her  laboring  people  are  the  victims  of  agitations  for 
which  they  are  not  responsible,  aggravated  by  the  restless  and 
ambitious  policy  of  certain  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

The  firm  attitude  of  Maryland  is  now  the  chief  hope  of  peace. 
If  you  firmly  adhere  to  the  United  States  against  all  enemies,  re 
solved  to  obey  the  Constitution  and  see  it  obeyed,  your  example 
will  arrest  the  spirit  of  revolution,  and  greatly  aid  the  govern 
ment  in  restoring,  without  bloodshed,  its  authority.  If  Maryland 
yield  to  this  revolutionary  clamor,  she  will  be  overcome  in  a  few 
months  in  the  struggle  for  the  national  capital ;  and  her  young 


198  ADDRESS  TO  THE  VOTERS,  ETC. 

men,  torn  from  the  pursuits  of  peace,  excluded  from  the  closed 
work -shop  and  counting-house,  must  shoulder  the  musket  to 
guard  their  homes  at  the  cost  of  fraternal  blood. 

I  confidently  trust  that  the  people  of  the  Fourth  Congressional 
District  will,  in  this  grave  emergency,  give  new  proofs  of  their 
devotion  to  the  Constitution,  and  their  superiority  to  envy,  fear, 
and  delusion. 

Your  fellow-citizen,  HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIR 
TY-THREE. 

ON  the  14th  of  January  the  special  Committee  of  Thirty-three  pre 
sented  their  Report,  and  the  discussion  thereon  began  on  the  21st.  In 
that  committee,  on  the  7th  of  January,  an  amendment  proposed  by  Mr. 
Davis  was  adopted  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  (afterward  reported  to  and 
rejected  by  the  House),  securing  to  the  fugitive  slave  a  trial  tyjury  in  the 
state  to  which  he  was  returned.  On  the  18th  of  December  the  commit 
tee  had  previously  adopted,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Davis,  a  resolution,  to  be 
reported  to  the  House,  calling  upon  the  several  states  to  revise  their  stat 
utes,  with  a  view  to  repeal  such  as  clearly  conflicted  with  the  Constitu 
tion  or  laws  of  the  United  States  (Personal  Liberty  Bills). 

On  the  28th  the  President  submitted  the  propositions  from  the  Vir 
ginia  General  Assembly,  adopted  on  the  19th,  proposing  a  Peace  Con 
ference  of  commissioners  from  each  of  the  states,  to  be  holden  in  Wash 
ington  on  the  4th  of  February,  and  declaring  that  the  proposition  for 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  submitted  in  the  United  States  Senate 
by  Mr.  Crittenden,  "so  modified  as  that  the  first  article  proposed  shall 
apply  to  all  territory  of  the  United  States  now  held  or  hereafter  acquired 
south  of  latitude  30°  30',  and  that  African  slavery  shall  be  protected 
therein  while  a  Territory ;  and  that  the  fourth  article  shall  secure  to  the 
owners  of  slaves  the  right  of  transit,  with  their  slaves,  between  and  througJi 
the  non-slaveholding  states  and  territories,  constitute  the  basis  of  such  an 
adjustment* as  would  be  accepted  by  the  people  of  Virginia." 

On  the  31st  of  January  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  of  Massachusetts, 
delivered  a  speech,  remarkable  for  ability,  candor,  and  moderation,  in  sujJ- 
port  of  the  propositions  submitted  by  the  Committee  of  Thirty-three,  in 
cluding  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  in  these  words: 

"Article  XII.  No  amendment  of  this  Constitution  having  for  its  object  any 
interference,  within  the  stitcs,  with,  tfie  relations  between  their  citizens  and 
those  described  in  section  second  of  the  first  article  of  the  Constitution  as 
'  all  other  persons,'  shall  originate  with  any  state  that  does  not  recognize 
that  relation  within  its  own  limits,  or  shall  be  valid  without  the  assent  of 
every  one  of  the  states  composing  the  Union." 

The  Peace  Conference  met  on  the  5th  of  February. 

Seven  states  had  now  passed  formal  ordinances  of  secession,  and  their 
senators  and  representatives  had  withdrawn.  Major  Anderson  was  be- 


200     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

leaguered  in  Fort  Sumter.  The  "  commissioners"  from  South  Carolina 
had  come  to  Washington,  "authorized  and  empowered  to  treat  with  the 
government  of  the  United  States  for  the  delivery  of  the  forts,  magazines, 
light-houses,  and  other  real  estate,  with  their  appurtenances,  in  the  lim 
its  of  South  Carolina;  and  also  for  an  apportionment  of  the  public  debt, 
and  for  a  division  of  all  other  property  held  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States  as  agent  of  the  confederated  states,  of  which  South  Caro 
lina  was  recently  a  member ;  and  generally  to  negotiate  as  to  all  other 
measures  and  arrangements  proper  to  be  made  and  adopted,  in  the  exist 
ing  relation  of  the  parties,  and  for  the  continuance  of  peace  and  amity 
between  this  commonwealth  and  the  government  at  Washington."  They 
demanded  of  the  President  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the  United  States 
troops  then  in  Charleston  Harbor.  Castle  Pinckney  and  Fort  Moultric 
were  occupied  by  South  Carolina  militia.  The  "Palmetto"  flag  was 
raised  over  the  United  States  Custom-House  and  Post-Office  in  Charles 
ton.  The  United  States  Arsenal  there  was  "  taken  by  force  of  arms," 
and  on  the  9th  of  January  the  steamer  Star  of  the  West  having  the 
United  States  ensign  at  the  fore,  ic as  fired  into  from  a  masked  battery  on 
Morris  Island.  The  navy  yard  at  Pensacola,  Forts  Barrancas  and  Pu- 
laski,  the  United  States  Arsenal  at  Augusta  (Georgia),  the  United  States 
Mint  and  Custom-House  at,  and  the  forts  below  New  Orleans,  and  the 
United  States  revenue  cutters,  had  been  seized.  The  rebel  Convention 
had  met  at  Montgomery  (Alabama),  and  even  North  Carolina  had  threat 
ened,  by  a  unanimous  declaration  of  her  House  of  Commons,  "  to  go,  if 
reconciliation  fails,  with  the  other  slave  states." 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  Mr.  Davis  addressed  the 
House  on  the  7th  of  February,  1861,  as  follows: 

ME.  SPEAKER, — We  are  at  the  end  of  the  insane  revel  of  parti 
san  license  which  for  thirty  years  has  in  the  United  States  worn 
the  mask  of  government.  We  are  about  to  close  the  masquerade 
by  the  dance  of  death.  The  nations  of  the  world  look  anxiously 
to  see  if  the  people,  ere  they  tread  that  measure,  will  come  to 
themselves. 

Yet  in  the  early  youth  of  our  national  life,  we  are  already  ex 
hausted  by  premature  excesses.  The  corruption  of  our  political 
maxims  has  relaxed  the  tone  of  public  morals,  and  degraded  the 
public  authorities  from  the  terror  to  the  accomplices  of  evil  doers. 
Platform  for  fools — Plunder  for  thieves — Offices  for  service — 
Power  for  ambition,  unity  in.  these  essentials — Diversity  in  the 
immaterial  matters  of  policy  and  legislation — Charity  for  every 
frailty — The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God  :  these  max 
ims  have  sunk  into  the  public  mind — have  presided  at  the  ad- 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      £01 

ministration  of  public  affairs,  have  almost  effaced  the  very  idea  of 
public  duty.  The  government,  under  their  disastrous  influence, 
has  gradually  ceased  to  fertilize  the  fields  of  domestic  and  useful 
legislation,  and  pours  itself,  like  an  impetuous  torrent,  along  the 
barren  ravine  of  party  and  sectional  strife.  It  has  been  shorn  of 
every  prerogative  that  wore  the  austere,  aspect  of  authority  and 
power.  The  President,  no  longer,  preceded  by  the  fasces  and  the 
axe,  the  emblems  of  supreme  authority,  greets  every  popular 
clamor  with  wreathed  smiles  and  gracious  condescension,  is  de 
graded  to  preside  in  the  Palace  of  the  Nation  over  the  distribu 
tion  of  spoils  among  wrangling  victors,  dedicates  his  great  powers 
to  forge  or  find  arms  to  perpetuate  partisan  warfare  at  the  expense 
of  the  public  peace.  The  original  ideas  of  the  Constitution  have 
faded  from  men's  minds.  That  tbe  United  States  is  a  govern 
ment  entitled  to  respect  and  command ;  that  the  Constitution  fur 
nishes  a  remedy  for  every  grievance,  and  a  mode  of  redress  for 
every  wrong;  that  the  States  are  limited  within  their  spheres,  are 
charged  with  no  duties  to  each  other,  and  bear  no  relation  to  the 
other  States  excepting  through  their  common  head,  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States ;  that  those  in  authority,  alone,  are 
charged  with  power  to  repress  public  disorder  and  compose  the 
public  discontents ;  restrain  the  conduct  of  the  people  and  of  the 
States  within  the  barriers  of  the  Constitution — these  salutary  prin 
ciples  have  faded  from  the  popular  heart  with  the  great  interests 
which  the  government  is  charged  to  protect,  and  has  gradually 
allowed  to  escape  from  its  grasp.  Congress  has  ceased  to  regu 
late  commerce,  to  protect  domestic  industry,  to  encourage  our 
commercial  marine,  to  regulate  the  currency,  to  promote  internal 
commerce  by  internal  improvements — almost  every  power  useful 
'to  the  people  in  its  exercise  has  been  denied  and  abandoned,  or 
so  limited  in  its  exercise  as  to  be  useless— its  whole  activity  has 
been  dedicated  to  expansion  abroad,  and  acquiring  and  retaining 
power  at  home  till  men  have  forgotten  that  the  Union  is  a  bless 
ing,  and  that  they  owe  to  the  United  States  allegiance  paramount 
to  that  of  their  respective  States. 

The  consequence  of  this  demoralization  is,  that  States,  without 
regard  to  the  federal  government,  assume  to  stand  face  to  face 
and  wage  their  own  quarrels,  to  adjust  their  own  difficulties,  to 
impute  to  each  other  every  wrong,  to  insist  that  individual  States 
shall  remedy  every  grievance,  and  denouncing  their  failure  to  do 


202     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

so  as  cause  of  civil  war  between  the  States ;  and  as  if  the  Consti 
tution  were  silent  and  dead,  and  the  power  of  the  Union  utterly 
inadequate  to  keep  the  peace  between  them.  Unconstitutional 
commissioners  flit  from  State  to  State,  or  assemble  at  the  national 
capital  to  counsel  peace  or  instigate  war.  Sir,  these  are  the  causes 
which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  present  dangers.  These  causes, 
which  have  rendered  them  possible  and  made  them  serious,  must 
be  removed  before  they  can  ever  be  permanently  cured.  They 
shake  the  fabric  of  our  national  government.  It  is  to  this  fearful 
demoralization  of  the  government  and  the  people  that  we  must 
ascribe  the  disastrous  defections  which  now  perplex  us  with  the 
fear  of  change  in  all  that  constituted  our  greatness.  The  opera 
tion  of  the  government  has  been  withdrawn  from  the  great  public 
interests  in  order  that  competing  parties  might  not  be  embar 
rassed  in  the  struggle  for  power  by  diversities  of  opinion  upon 
questions  of  policy ;  and  the  public  mind,  in  that  struggle,  has 
been  exclusively  turned  on  the  Slavery  Question,  which  no  inter 
est  required  to  be  touched  by  any  department  of  this  government. 
On  that  subject  there  are  widely  marked  diversities  of  opinion 
and  interest  in  different  portions  of  the  Confederacy,  with  few 
mediating  influences  to  soften  the  collision.  In  the  struggle  for 
party  power,  the  two  great  regions  of  the  country  have  been 
brought  face  to  face  upon  this  most  dangerous  of  all  subjects  of 
agitation.  The  authority  of  the  government  was  relaxed  just 
when  its  power  was  about  to  be  assailed,  and  the  people  emanci 
pated  from  every  control ;  and  their  passions,  inflamed  by  the 
fierce  struggle  for  the  presidency,  were  the  easy  prey  of  revolu 
tionary  audacity. 

Within  two  months  after  a  formal,  peaceful,  regular  election  of 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  whole 
body  of  the  people  of  every  State  competed  with  zeal  for  the 
prize,  without  any  new  event  intervening,  without  any  new  griev 
ances  alleged,  without  any  new  menaces  having  been  made,  we 
have  seen,  in  the  short  course  of  one  month,  a  small  portion  of 
the  population  of  six  States  transcend  the  bounds,  at  a  single  leap, 
at  once  of  the  state  and  the  national  Constitutions,  usurp  the  ex 
traordinary  prerogative  of  repealing  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, 
exclude  the  great  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens  from  the  protection 
of  the  Constitution,  declare  themselves  emancipated  from  the  ob 
ligations  which  the  Constitution  pronounces  to  be  supreme  over 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      203 

them  and  over  their  laws,  arrogate  to  themselves  all  the  preroga 
tives  of  independent  power,  rescind  the  acts  of  cession  of  the  pub 
lic  property,  occupy  the  public  offices,  seize  the  fortresses  of  the 
United  States  confided  to  the  faith  of  the  people  among  whom 
they  were  placed,  embezzle  the  public  arms  concentrated  there 
for  the  defense  of  the  United  States,  array  thousands  of  men  in 
arms  against  the  United  States,  and  actually  wage  war  on  the 
Union  by  besieging  two  of  their  fortresses,  and  firing  on  a  vessel 
bearing,  under  the  flag  of  the  United  States,  re-enforcements  and 
provisions  to  one  of  them.  The  very  boundaries  of  right  and 
wrong  seem  obliterated  when  we  see  a  cabinet  minister  deliber 
ately,  for  months,  engaged  in  changing  the  distribution  of  public 
arms  to  places  in  the  hands  of  those  about  to  resist  the  public 
authority,  so  as  to  place  within  their  grasp  means  of  waging  war 
against  the  United  States  greater  than  they  ever  used  against  a 
foreign  foe ;  and  another  cabinet  minister,  still  holding  his  com 
mission  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  still  a  confiden 
tial  adviser  of  the  President,  still  bound  by  his  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  himself  a  commissioner  from 
his  own  State  to  another  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of 
organizing  and  extending  another  part  of  the  same  great  scheme 
of  rebellion ;  and  the  doom  of  the  republic  seems  sealed  when  the 
President,  surrounded  by  such  ministers,  permits,  without  rebuke, 
the  government  to  be  betrayed,  neglects  the  solemn  warning  of 
the  first  soldier  of  the  age,  till  almost  every  fort  is  a  prey  to  do 
mestic  treason,  and  accepts  assurances  of  peace  in  his  time  at  the 
expense  of  leaving  the  national  honor  unguarded.  His  message 
gives  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies  of  the  Union  by  avowing 
his  inability  to  maintain  its  integrity ;  and  paralyzed  and  stupe 
fied  he  stands  amid  the  crash  of  the  falling  republic,  still  mutter 
ing — not  in  my  time — not  in  my  time — after  me  the  deluge ! 

Sir,  history,  by  her  prophet  Tacitus,  has  drawn  his  character 
for  posterity — major  private  visus  dum  privatus  fait  et  consensu 
omnium  capax  imperil  nisi  imperasset.  Yes,  sir,  nisi  imperasset, 
James  Buchanan  might  have  passed  to  the  grave  as  one  of  the 
men  of  the  republic,  equal  to  every  station  he  filled,  and  not  in 
competent  for  the  highest.  The  acquisition  of  supreme  power 
has  revealed  his  incapacity,  and  crowns  him  with  the  unenviable 
honor  of  the  chief  destroyer  of  his  country's  greatness. 

We  have,  Mr.  Speaker,  this  day  to  deal  in  a  great  measure  with 


204     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

the  consequences  of  his  incapacity.  Persons  usurping  power  in 
six  or  seven  States  have  thrown  off  their  allegiance  to  the  United 
States.  It  was  fondly  hoped  that  it  was  only  temporary — possi 
bly  a  desperate  contrivance  to  restore  the  chief  actors  to  power ; 
but  we  are  now  authoritatively  informed  by  the  response  of  South 
Carolina  to  the  kindly  messenger  from  Virginia  that  their  position 
is  permanently  fixed ;  that  they  desire  to  have,  and  will  have  no 
farther  political  connection  with  the  United  States ;  and  a  distin 
guished  gentleman,  until  within  one  month  a  member  of  the  cab 
inet  of  the  United  States,  recently  elected  President  of  the  revo 
lutionary  Convention  at  Montgomery,  has  informed  us  in  his  in 
augural  speech  that  it  is  their  purpose  finally  to  sever  their  con 
nection  with  the  United  States,  and  to  take  all  the  consequences 
of  organizing  an  independent  republic. 

Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  driven  to  one  of  two  alternatives;  we  must 
recognize — what  we  have  been  told  more  than  once  upon  this 
floor  is  an  accomplished  fact — the  independence  of  the  rebellious 
States,  or  we  must  refuse  to  acknowledge  it,  and  accept  all  the  re 
sponsibilities  that  attach  to  that  refusal.  Eecognize  them  !  aban 
don  the  Gulf  and  coast  of  Mexico ;  surrender  the  forts  of  the 
United  States ;  yield  the  privilege  of  free  commerce  and  free  in 
tercourse  ;  strike  down  the  guarantees  of  the  Constitution  for  our 
fellow-citizens  in  all  that  wide  region ;  create  a  thousand  miles  of 
interior  frontier  to  be  furnished  with  internal  custom-houses,  and 
armed  with  internal  forts,  themselves  to  be  a  prey  to  the  next  ca 
price  of  State  sovereignty ;  organize  a  vast  standing  army,  ready 
at  a  moment's  warning,  to  resist  aggression ;  create  upon  our  south 
ern  boundary  a  perpetual  foothold  for  foreign  powers  whenever 
caprice,  ambition,  or  hostility  may  see  fit  to  invite  the  despot  of 
France  or  the  aggressive  power  of  England  to  attack  us  upon  our 
undefended  frontier ;  sever  that  unity  of  territory  which  we  have 
spent  millions,  and  labored  through  three  generations  to  create 
and  establish ;  pull  down  the  flag  of  the  United  States  and  take  a 
lower  station  among  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  abandon  the  high 
prerogative  of  leading  the  march  of  freedom,  the  hope  of  strug 
gling  nationalities,  the  terror  of  frowning  tyrants,  the  boast  of  the 
world,  the  light  of  liberty,  to  become  the  sport  and  prey  of  des 
pots  whose  thrones  we  consolidate  by  our  fall ;  to  be  greeted  by 
Mexico  with  the  salutation,  Art  thou  also  become  weak  as  we  ? 
art  thou  become  like  unto  us?  This  is  recognition. 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.     205 

Kefuse  to  recognize !  We  must  not  coerce  a  State  in  the  peace 
ful  process  of  secession.  We  must  not  coerce  a  State  engaged  in 
the  peaceful  process  of  firing  into  a  United  States  vessel  to  pre 
vent  the  re-enforcement  of  a  United  States  fort.  We  must  not 
coerce  States  which,  without  any  declaration  of  war  or  any  act  of 
hostility  of  any  kind,  have  united,  as  have  Mississippi,  Florida, 
and  Louisiana,  their  joint  forces  to  seize  a  public  fortress.  We 
must  not  coerce  a  State  which  has  planted  cannon  upon  its  shores 
to  prevent  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  We  must  not 
coerce  a  State  which  has  robbed  the  United  States  Treasury. 
This  is  peaceful  secession! 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  design  to  quarrel  with  gentlemen  about 
words.  I  do  not  wish  to  say  one  word  which  will  exasperate  the 
already  too  much  inflamed  state  of  the  public  mind ;  but  I  say 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  made  in 
pursuance  thereof,  must  be  enforced ;  and  they  who  stand  across 
the  path  of  that  enforcement  must  either  destroy  the  power  of 
the  United  States,  or  it  will  destroy  them.  (Loud  applause  in  the 
galleries.)  I  trust  in  God  that  any  such  collision  is  years,  centu 
ries,  yea,  thousands  of  years  off.  I  see  no  necessity  for  it.  I  think 
it  may  be  avoided  by  prudent  administration,  till  the  people  shall 
come  to  themselves.  But  the  laws  of  the  United  States  provide 
their  own  method  of  enforcement,  and  when  they  are  enforced, 
those  who  resist  must  take  the  consequences. 

I  think  the  revenues  may  be  collected  in  disaffected  ports  on 
board  United  States  ships.  I  think  the  laws  of  commerce  may  be 
enforced  by  allowing  no  vessel  to  pass  out  unless  she  has  papers 
of  the  United  States  on  board.  The  postal  routes  and  arrange 
ments  may  be  sustained  or  suspended,  as  the  interests  of  the  gov 
ernment  or  the  disturbed  condition  of  the  localities  may  require. 
The  courts  of  justice,  if  needs  be,  may  be  supported  as  they  were 
in  Utah ;  or  we  may  remove  the  courts,  extend  the  districts  over 
several  States,  and  locate  the  courts  in  States  which  are  not  dis 
turbed.  These  are  the  regular  peaceful  methods  of  enforcing  the 
laws  of  the  United  States.  These  methods,  if  pursued,  will  allow 
time  for  reflection — cooling  time  to  the  people  excited  by  a  fierce 
political  canvass,  and  surprised  on  a  sudden  unprepared,  by  revo 
lutionary  contrivances  prepared  beforehand.  We  can  await  the 
inevitable  time  of  division,  discord,  and  resistance  to  taxation  and 
military  exactions. 


206     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

But  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  vested  by  the  Con 
stitution  with  adequate  power  to  meet  every  emergency.  It  is  re 
quired  to  guarantee  a  republican  form  of  government  to  every 
State.  A  government  whose  executive  Legislature  and  judicial 
officers  are  not  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is  mere  usurpation,  and  not  a  republican  government.  It 
will  never  be  recognized  for  any  purpose.  If  the  loyal  citizens 
of  any  State,  whose  authorities  have  usurped  the  prerogative  of 
repealing  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  shall  see  fit  to  or 
ganize  for  themselves  a  government,  the  President  can  recognize 
them,  and  the  President  can  support  them.  Among  the  powers 
granted  by  the  Constitution  is  the  power  to  suppress  insurrection ; 
it  does  not  except  insurrections  ordered  by  State  authority,  and 
they  will  be  suppressed  as  promptly  as  others.  The  Constitution  au 
thorizes  Congress  to  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  enforce 
the  laws,  and  it  makes  no  exception  of  those  laws  which  a  State 
may  see  fit  to  oppose ;  and  if  to  the  regular  execution  of  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  armed  resistance  shall  be  made,  the  govern 
ment  has  authority  to  disperse  those  who  oppose  the  enforcement. 
The  Constitution  forbids  any  State  to  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war 
in  time  of  peace ;  and  if  troops  be  organized  by  any  State,  the 
United  States  have  power  to  require  them  to  be  disbanded,  and 
to  disperse  them  if  they  be  not  disbanded.  If  ships  of  war  shall 
be  built,  they  have  a  right,  under  the  Constitution,  to  require  them 
to  be  disposed  of,  or,  if  that  be  refused,  they  may  sink  them. 
Whether  that  shall  be  done  is  a  matter  of  discretion.  If  States 
levy  troops  and  attack  no  one,  the  United  States  may  well  let 
them  eat  their  own  heads  off.  The  cost  will  soon  disperse  them. 
But  if  they  assail  the  United  States,  or  other  States,  or  loyal  citi 
zens  of  the  United  States  in  the  disaffected  State,  then  the  blame 
of  collision  rests  on  those  who  compelled  the  United  States  to  re 
sistance.  In  this  manner,  without  any  thing  like  war  upon  States, 
without  any  attempt  to  do  damage  to  any  citizens  excepting  those 
who  may  have  arrayed  themselves  in  arms  against  the  United 
States,  the  government  can  vindicate  its  authority  and  maintain 
its  power.  This  is  not  war.  The  Constitution  calls  it  enforcing 
the  laws.  It  is  no  more  war  than  arresting  a  criminal  is  war.  It 
is  supporting  the  civil  power  by  the  military  arm  against  unlaw 
ful  combinations  too  powerful  to  be  otherwise  dealt  with.  The 
guilt  of  the  actors  is  not  extenuated  by  State  authority,  still  less 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      207 

by  that  of  the  revolutionary  conventions.  By  their  sanction  they 
become  participators  in  the  guilt,  and  liable  to  the  punishment  of 
the  armed  actors.  War  is  the  struggle  between  two  powers  to  do 
each  other  the  greatest  possible  harm,  subject  only  to  international 
law.  But  when  the  United  States  suppress  an  insurrection  or  en 
force  the  laws,  they  harm  only  those  actually  resisting,  and  them 
only  so  far  as  to  remove  their  resistance  to  the  civil  arm.  Its  end 
is  their  dispersion.  The  United  States  carry  the  Constitution  be 
fore  their  arms ;  its  provisions  hedge  in  their  bayonets ;  and  every 
weapon  sinks  when  its  authority  is  admitted.  Conquest  in  war 
is  absolute  despotism ;  the  triumph  of  the  United  States  is  the 
restoration  of  constitutional  liberty. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  marvel  still  remains  to  be  explained  how 
it  is  that,  in  this  free  republican  land,  over  so  wide  a  region  of 
country,  people  hitherto  loyal  to  the  United  States  have  so  sud 
denly  taken  such  strange  and  revolutionary  courses. 

First,  sir,  it  is  because  there  is,  and  has  been  for  years,  a  revo 
lutionary  faction  in  many  of  them,  disguised  by  being  mingled  in 
the  ranks  of  a  great  political  party,  but  always  working  to  accom 
plish  its  treasonable  purposes. 

It  is  because  of  the  tenacity  with  which  defeated  politicians — 
not  revolutionists,  but  acting  with  them — cling  to  power,  determ 
ined  to  rule  or  to  ruin  the  government. 

They  have  the  p'ower  to  bring  these  great  disasters  upon  the 
country  only  because  the  popular  mind  has  been  aroused  and  ex 
cited  by  fierce  discussions  upon  the  topic  of  slavery,  on  which  the 
Southern  people  are  so  justly  sensitive.  By  the  grossest  misrep 
resentations  of  the  purposes  of  the  great  body  of  the  Northern 
people,  by  perpetual  and  reiterated  misrepresentation  and  exag 
geration  of  their  feelings,  a  hostile  state  of  feeling  has  been  cre 
ated  throughout  a  great  portion,  if  not  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  South,  which  borders  upon  revolution  itself.  A  state  of  fear, 
an  undefined  dread,  a  sense  of  insecurity,  has  been  inspired  by  the 
course  of  the  political  canvass  in  the  South.  The  mischief  has 
been  done  at  home.  The  mischief  has  been  done  by  the  violent 
struggles  of  parties  for  supremacy.  Both  have  striven  each  to 
blacken  their  common  opponents  at  the  North,  by  imputing  to 
them  opinions  and  purposes  which  both  execrate ;  and  one  has 
imputed  sympathy  with  the  same  opinions  to  their  political  oppo 
nents  at  the  South.  Whatever  disturbance  exists  there,  the  great, 


208      THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

the  main,  the  substantial  cause  of  it  is  not  the  conduct  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  free  States,  but  the  conduct  of  the  political  canvass  at 
the  South,  the  course  of  the  debate  by  Southern  gentlemen  in  this 
House,  the  mode  in  which  they  have,  consciously  or  unconscious 
ly,  exaggerated  and  blackened  the  purposes  of  gentlemen  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  House,  and  habitually  circulated  at  home 
inflammatory  speeches  of  certain  Northern  gentlemen,  which  I 
submit  they  ought  to  have  known  did  not  represent  the  feelings 
of  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  the  North,  however  well  they 
may  represent  that  small  faction  called  there  "Abolitionists."  I 
say  that  is  the  real,  the  chief,  the  exciting  cause  of  the  existing 
disturbances;  and,  sir,  in  my  judgment,  without  constitutional 
amendments,  or  the  passage  of  one  law,  if  gentlemen  will  only  re 
move  the  impression  that  they  have  erroneously  left  upon  their 
people's  minds,  if  they  will  only  go  and  say  to  them  what  they 
have  heard  said  again  and  again  on  this  floor  by  the  distinguished 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Adams],  by  the  distinguished 
gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Corwin],  so  often  and  by  so  many  of 
his  colleagues  upon  this  floor,  and  what  is  now  said  still  more 
formally  by  the  resolutions  adopted  by  Eepublican  votes  in  the 
Committee  of  Thirty-three,  and  reported  by  the  distinguished  gen 
tleman  from  Ohio,  that  there  exists  no  purpose,  directly  or  indi 
rectly,  to  disturb  or  interfere  in  any  manner  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  within  the  States,  and  that  the  only  question  is  whether 
it  shall  go  into  the  poor,  miserable,  worthless  Territory  of  New 
Mexico  or  not;  if  they  will  go  and  tell  the  people  that,  there 
would  be  peace  and  quiet  throughout  the  whole  South  within  a 
month  after  they  made  the  explanation.  But,  sir,  from  the  course 
of  debate  in  this  House,  I  have  small  hope  of  that  natural,  prompt, 
and  honest  remedy.  They  who  profit  by  the  error  will  not  cor 
rect  it. 

A  committee  has  been  raised  charged  with  devising  such  meas 
ures  as  will  at  once  assuage  the  existing  discontents,  avoid  the 
occasions  of  future  irritation,  and  tender  such  guarantees  to  the 
sensitive  interests  of  the  South  as,  in  the  absence  of  those  just 
recantations  by  politicians  of  the  South,  will  still  give  peace,  quiet, 
and  security  to  the  Southern  people.  I  desire,  Mr.  Speaker,  to 
lay  before  the  House,  in  as  plain  and  brief  a  manner  as  I  can,  the 
results  to  which  the  committee  charged  with  that  duty  have  come; 
to  compare  the  remedies  that  the  majority  and  the  minority  of 


THE  EEPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      209 

the  committee  respectively  propose,  and  to  contrast  the  complaints 
and  the  remedies  of  the  minority  with  themselves. 

The  first  cause  of  irritation  is  the  Personal  Liberty  Bills.  Both 
portions  of  the  committee  propose  a  recommendation  that  they 
shall  be  repealed.  The  votes  of  the  committee  and  of  the  House 
on  that  subject  ought  to  remove  every  trace  of  dissatisfaction  or 
suspicion. 

Great  irritation  has  grown  out  of  the  obstructions  to  the  exe 
cution  of  the  act  for  the  delivery  of  fugitives  from  service.  The 
repeal  of  those  bills  ought  to  be  accompanied  by  an  amendment 
of  that  law.  The  minority  of  the  committee,  headed  by  the  gen 
tleman  from  Louisiana  [Mr.  Taylor],  who  took  his  leave  of  us  the 
other  day,  propose  on  that  subject  an  amendment  of  the  Consti 
tution  requiring  that  when  fugitives  are  rescued  by  violence,  the 
United  States  shall  pay  the  value  to  their  owner,  and  have  the 
privilege  of  suing  the  county  or  district  permitting  the  rescue  for 
the  amount.  Sir,  this  is  to  perpetuate,  and  not  to  close  the  slav 
ery  controversy.  The  only  effect  of  the  adoption  of  such  an 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  would  be  to  make  this  hall  every 
session,  on  every  bill  to  pay  for  negroes  rescued,  the  scene  of  fierce 
strife  upon  the  very  subject  of  slavery.  Another  objection  is 
equally  fatal.  It  brings  the  United  States  into  direct  collision 
with  an  organized  political  division  of  a  State,  which  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  was  most  carefully  devised  to  avoid. 
The  right  of  action  against  a  county  for  so  harsh  a  cause  could 
scarcely  be  enforced  by  any  process  known  to  the  law.  Success 
would  itself  cause  great  discontent  among  large  masses  of  people, 
and  resistance  to  their  execution  could  only  be  removed  by  armed 
force.  In  other  words,  the  amendment  prepared  by  the  minority 
of  the  committee  would  plunge  us  here  into  the  perpetual  discus 
sion  of  the  Slavery  Question,  and  would  require  the  government 
to  enforce  against  communities  numerous,  and  powerful,  and  inno 
cent  responsibilities  for  acts  which  they  have  not  done,  but  have 
only  failed  to  prevent.  The  bill  reported  by  the  majority  of  the 
committee  is  very  different  in  its  purposes  and  in  its  policy.  It 
assumes  that  the  law  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves  ought  to 
be  so  modified  as  not  to  give  cause  or  pretext  for  the  fears  which 
it  has  occasioned  at  the  North,  and  then  when  that  exciting 
cause  of  discontent  is  removed,  the  law  can  be  executed.  The 
danger  which  the  Northen  people  feel  is  that  their  own  free  resi- 

O 


210    THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

dent  colored  people  may,  under  summary  process,  be  arrested, 
carried  off,  and  sold  into  slavery.  The  law  of  1850  provides  no 
remedy  for  cases  of  that  sort.  "We  propose  that  where  there  is  a 
claim  of  freedom,  the  negro  shall  be  surrendered  to  the  marshal 
of  the  United  States,  and  carried  back  to  the  slave  State  from 
which  he  is  ascertained  to  have  come,  and  there  shall  have  the 
privilege  of  a  trial  before  a  court  of  the  United  States  in  that 
State.  A  trial  there  can  not  be  objected  to  by  Southern  gentle 
men  ;  Northern  gentlemen  ought  to  be  satisfied  that  his  claim  to 
freedom,  brought  in  a  formal  and  public  manner  before  a  judicial 
tribunal  of  the  United  States,  will  be  decided  according  to  its 
merit.  Surely  no  one  can  hesitate  between  the  cumbersome  and 
anomalous  plan  of  the  minority,  and  the  simple  and  just  bill  of 
the  majority  of  the  committee. 

The  next  subject  is  that  of  the  Territories.  Mr.  Speaker,  it  is 
certainly  marvelous  that,  having  settled  this  very  question  touch 
ing  this  very  Territory  by  Mr.  Clay's  acts  in  1850,  and  no  inter 
mediate  law  having  been  passed  by  any  body  excepting  the  law 
of  1854  repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise,  so  as  to  allow  slavery 
to  exist  north  of  the  line  of  36°  30',  the  South  having  boasted  of 
the  laws  of  1850  as  their  triumph,  and  every  party  in  the  country 
having  pledged  itself  to  stand  by  them,  it  is  of  all  things  most 
strange  that  we  are  now  told  that  this  Union  can  not  endure  un 
less  those  laws  themselves  are  repealed ;  and  the  very  principle 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  so  far  as  it  was  objected  to  by  the 
South,  that  is,  the  exclusion  of  slavery  beyond  the  line  which  they 
denounced  as  unequal,  shall  be  not  only  restored,  but  ingrafted 
forever  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States-!  It  was  de 
nounced  and  branded  by  Southern  men  all  through  the  debate 
which  resulted  in  its  repeal  as  a  badge  of  inferiority,  a  mark  of 
inequality,  a  stain  of  dishonor  to  the  South.  And  now  they  de 
mand  that  it  shall  be  restored,  not  by  a  temporary  act  of  legisla 
tion,  but  by  the  sanction  of  the  people  in  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land.  A  more  flagrant,  inexplicable,  unintelligible  case  of  capri 
cious  inconsistency  is  unknown  to  history.  But,  sir,  the  gentle 
men  who  assume  to  speak  for  the  South  have  changed  their  no 
tions  of  equality  and  honor,  and  of  course  the  world  must  change 
too.  The  proposal  is  made  on  the  part  of  the  minority  of  the 
committee  that  there  shall  be  a  division  of  territory,  and  that  all 
the  region  north  of  36°  30'  shall  be  dedicated  to  freedom,  and  in 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.     211 

all  the  region  south  to  Cape  Horn,  slavery  of  the  African  race  is 
"hereby  recognized  as  existing" — existing  over  the  whole  of  Mexico 
— over  all  the  regions  of  Central  America,  skipping  Brazil,  I  sup 
pose,  where  slavery  already  exists,  and  going  down  to  the  ex- 
tremest  regions  of  South  America  by  virtue  of  our  Constitution. 
Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  gentleman  who  proposed  that  ought  to 
know  something  of  the  history  of  the  last  few  years  at  least,  and 
if  there  is  one  thing  which  ought  to  be  understood  as  absolutely 
impossible,  it  is  ever  to  get  a  law  through  this  House,  or  even 
through  the  Senate,  by  a  simple  majority,  establishing  slavery  in 
any  inch  of  territory  where  it  does  not  already  exist.  Be  it  right 
or  be  it  wrong,  be  it  liberal  or  be  it  illiberal,  every  gentleman 
here  must  know  that  that  is  one  of  the  things  which  are  impossi 
ble.  But  in  what  method  do  the  gentlemen  of  the  minority  pro 
pose  to  do  this?  By  a  constitutional  amendment  requiring  two 
thirds  of  this  House — where  it  could  not  get  one  third — and  two 
thirds  of  the  Senate  ;  and  when  it  has  gone  through  these  impos 
sible  ordeals,  it  has  to  go  before  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
and  get,  not  two  thirds  but  three  fourths  of  the  Legislatures  of  the 
several  states.  Scale  the  heavens,  if  you  please,  without  wings  ; 
pass  the  abyss  which  divides  heaven  from  hell,  but  do  not  talk 
about  a  thing  like  this.  And  what  in  the  mean  time,  Mr.  Speaker  ? 
Agitation,  violence,  recrimination,  not  merely  on  the  question  of 
the  policy  of  slavery,  but  compelling  the  Northern  people,  wheth 
er  they  will  or  not,  to  go  into  the  very  question  of  its  merits,  moral 
and  religious,  not  leaving  them  where  they  are  willing  to  leave 
you  —  as  they  have  said  over  and  over  again — within  the  impassa 
ble  barriers'  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  made  tenfold 
higher  and  tenfold  stronger  by  the  provision  of  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Adams] — but  asking  the  people  of  the 
North  to  declare  that  they  have  been  hypocritical  in  their  opin 
ions  that  African  slavery  is  not  merely  impolitic,  but  immoral ;  a 
thing  which  they  ought  not  to  sanction — to  reverse  all  their  judg 
ment  on  that  subject,  and  themselves  ingraft  in  the  Constitution. 
a  doctrine  which  you  accuse  them  of  hating  so  eternally  that 
they  are  struggling  to  destroy  it  illegally  and  unconstitutionally. 
You  ask  them  to  save  and  protect  that  very  thing  which,  for  two 
years  past,  you  have  stood  here  and  denounced  them  for  intend 
ing  to  destroy;  by  exciting  servile  war;  by  insidious  appeals  to 
the  non-slaveholding  white  people  of  the  South ;  by  the  hands 


212     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

of  such  incendiaries  as  John  Brown.  In  the  most  of  these  ap 
peals,  while  their  echo  is  still  ringing  in  my  ears,  while  I  have 
before  me  the  scenes  that  I  witnessed  last  year  on  that  side  of  the 
House,  when  men,  raging  and  furious  as  the  revolutionary  assem 
blies  in  France,  hurled  the  epithets  "traitor"  and  "incendiary" 
against  their  equals  from  the  free  states  thick  as  arrows  in  a  Par 
thian  battle-field,  gentlemen  now  ask  those  very  men,  to  whom 
such  opinions  have  been  imputed,  to  turn  round  and  forget  all, 
and,  as  honest  men,  conciliatory  men,  wise  men,  do  the  very  thing 
which  they  have  told  you  for  the  last  eighty  years  they  could  not 
in  their  consciences  do. 

Very  different  is  the  mode  of  disposing  of  the  territory  that 
has  been  fallen  upon  by  the  majority  of  the  committee,  anxious 
to  remove  the  pretext  for  contention,  and  striving  as  far  as  they 
could  to  avoid  the  difficulties  in  the  plan  demanded  of  them,  and 
that  in  no  conciliatory  tone,  but  with  the  air  of  dictating  an  ulti 
matum  !  They  propose  this.  All  the  territory  now  held  by  the 
United  States  south  of  36°  30'  is  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico 
extending  a  little  north  of  it.  In  that  Territory,  under  the  law 
of  1850,  which  is  now  so  fiercely  assailed,  the  people  within  one 
year  have  themselves  adopted  a  slave  code  as  rigorous  as  any  in 
existence  in  any  of  the  Southern  States.  The  law  of  1850  secured 
to  that  people  the  right  to  admission  into  the  Union  with  or  with 
out  slavery,  as  their  Constitution  might  provide.  With  eminent 
liberality,  in  mere  execution  and  not  in  repeal  of  that  law,  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Adams],  whose  position  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  all  the  world  knows,  as  if  to  put  forever  to 
silence  imputations  of  any  design  in  any  portion  of  the  Northern 
people  to  invade  the  rights  of  the  South,  comes  forward  now  and 
proposes  to  pass  a  law  creating  New  Mexico  a  state.  If  it  see  fit 
to  adopt  slavery,  then  it  will  be  a  slave  state.  If  it  see  fit  to  for 
bid  it,  then  it  will  be  a  free  state.  In  either  event,  it  removes  the 
subject  of  controversy.  In  either  event,  it  puts  it  beyond  the 
power  of  any  one  to  touch  this  domestic  institution  by  constitu 
tional  guarantees  as  irrepealable,  as  unchangeable  as  the  minorit}r 
demand.  That  would  remove  the  controversy  from  Congress, 
not  by  a  compromise,  but  by  removing  the  whole  subject  from 
Congress  and  the  people  forever  by  a  simple  majority  of  this  House 
and  of  the  other  House,  and  the  signature  of  the  President,  leav 
ing  the  whole  subject  in  controversy  to  be  decided,  as  Southern 


THE  KEPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.     213 

gentlemen  must  see  it  must  ultimately  be  decided,  by  the  Consti 
tution  of  New  Mexico.  If  I  am  correctly  informed  by  the  gen 
tleman  who  has  so  honorably  represented  that  Territory  here,  the 
people  are  likely  to  require  a  decision  themselves  within  a  year ; 
proceedings  are  now  pending  before  the  Legislature  for  the  pur 
pose  of  asking  their  recognition.  I  ask,  therefore,  whether  it  is 
not  wise,  before  we  have  still  farther  revolutionary  complications 
forced  upon  us,  to  tell  them  at  once  to  form  their  Constitution,  and 
thus  take  away  the  subject  of  the  controversy  now  and  forever. 
With  regard  to  the  other  portion  of  the  territory,  Northern  gentle 
men  ask  no  exclusion  of  slavery  by  law  or  Constitution.  The 
perpetual  imputation  is  that  they  are  for  prohibition  every  where. 
South  Carolina  has  elevated  that  to  a  chief  place  in  her  travesty 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  During  the  two  months 
that  we  have  been  here,  no  gentleman  heard  such  a  thing  urged 
as  a  proposal  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  northern  portion  of  the 
Territory.  If  I  am  rightly  informed,  the  Senate,  by  a  Eepublican 
majority,  has,  within  the  last  two  days,  passed  a  bill  organizing 
the  western  portion  of  Kansas  as  a  Territory,  and  there  is  not  one 
word  in  it  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  so  that  the  proposition  of  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  is  to  place  the  Slavery  Question 
beyond  the  possible  reach  of  Congress  south  of  36°  30',  and  in 
the  residue  to  leave  it  to  the  administration  of  the  law.  He  says : 
"  We  all  agree  as  to  what  that  law  is.  We  will  not  attempt  to 
change  it  by  legislation.  And  as  you  desire  the  southern  portion 
of  it  set  apart  for  your  patrimony,  in  God's  name  take  it,  and  let 
us  be  at  peace."  Any  man  who  is  not  wholly  blind  to  the  great 
interests  at  stake  would  accept  such  an  offer  as  that  as  an  eternal 
adjustment,  not  only  in  spirit,  but  in  fact,  of  this  whole  contro 
versy.  After  that,  no  imputation  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
North  to  interfere  with  slavery  ought  to  pass  Southern  lips. 

Sir,  I  know  that  these  propositions  will  be  received  with  a 
shrug  of  the  shoulders,  and  a  suggestion  that  they  are  not  satis 
factory,  by  gentlemen  of  the  South.  But,  sir,  I  tell  them  that  if 
they  do  not  satisfy  them,  they  will  satisfy  the  people,  and  that 
they  will  find  out  before  they  are  many  months  older.  The  great 
State  of  Virginia  has  told  them  within  the  last  three  days  that 
the  heart  of  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth  still  beats  true  to 
this  Union ;  and  though  they  may  for  a  moment  be  deluded,  they 
can  not  be  forced  into  revolutionary  violence  for  the  difference 


214:     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

between  the  measures  of  the  majority  and  the  minority  of  the 
committee. 

If  their  representatives  here,  or  at  Kichmond,  or  in  their  uncon 
stitutional  Convention,  called  for  unconstitutional  purposes,  shall, 
after  the  adoption  of  these  proposals,  venture  to  advise  resort  to 
revolution,  they  will  speak  to  deaf  ears  and  hard  hearts.  I  do 
not  envy  the  lot  of  any  one  who  advocates  an  ordinance  of  seces 
sion  on  such  grounds.  I  think  he  will  meet  with  small  favor 
who,  rather  than  create  New  Mexico  a  State,  presents  to  the  peo 
ple  of  Virginia  the  awful  alternative  of  tearing  down  the  fabric 
built  up  by  our  fathers,  of  making  war  upon  their  Northern 
brethren,  of  blotting  out  the  great  memories  of  the  past,  of  strik 
ing  out  their  star  from  the  galaxy  of  this  great  Confederacy,  form 
ed  under  the  auspices  of  Washington,  to  become  the  small  sun  of 
a  secondary  constellation,  dependent  on  the  caprice  of  greater 
powers  for  justice  and  safety.  I  am  under  no  delusion  about  the 
meanings  of  the  vote  in  Virginia.  I  think  the  failure  of  these 
measures  will  create  serious  disappointment,  and  gravely  aggra 
vate  existing  discontents ;  but  I  am  confident  that,  however  poli 
ticians  may  regard  them,  they  will  be  hailed  with  delight  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  as  well  as  of  the  other  central 
slave  States,  and  will  strip  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  of  all 
power  for  mischief. 

But,  sir,  there  is  one  State  I  can  speak  for,  and  that  is  the  State 
of  Maryland.  (Applause  in  the  galleries.)  Confident  in  the 
strength  of  this  great  government  to  protect  every  interest,  grate 
ful  for  almost  a  century  of  unalloyed  blessings,  she  has  fomented 
no  agitation ;  she  has  done  no  act  to  disturb  the  public  peace ; 
she  has  rested  in  the  consciousness  that,  if  there  be  wrong,  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  will  remedy  it ;  and  that  none  ex 
ists  which  revolution  would  not  aggravate. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  represent  here  the  Fourth  Congressional  District 
of  Maryland  only  ;  but,  though  I  am  not  elected  by  the  State  of 
Maryland,  I  am  entitled  to  speak  here,  and  I  will  speak  what  I 
know  to  be  the  sentiments  of  the  State  of  Maryland.  (Applause 
on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries.) 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  here  this  day  to  speak,  and  I  say  that  I  do , 
speak,  for  the  people  of  Maryland,  who  are  loyal  to  the  United 
States;  and  that  when  my  judgment  is  contested,  I  appeal  to  the 
people  for  its  accuracy,  and  I  am  ready  to  maintain  it  before 
them.  (Great  applause.) 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.     215 

In  Maryland  we  are  dull,  and  can  not  comprehend  the  right  of 
secession.  "We  do  not  recognize  the  right  to  make  a  revolution 
by  a  vote.  We  do  not  recognize  the  right  of  Maryland  to  repeal 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  if  any  Convention 
there,  called  by  whatever  authority,  under  whatever  auspices,  un 
dertake  to  inaugurate  revolution  in  Maryland,  their  authority 
will  be  resisted  and  defied  in  arms  on  the  soil  of  Maryland,  in 
the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

A  majority  have  no  more  right  than  a  minority.  The  right  of 
a  majority  is  a  constitutional,  not  a  natural  right.  For  the  de 
struction  of  the  Constitution  they  can  have  no  right.  The  whole 
mass  of  the  nation  alone  has  the  right  to  alter  the  fundamental 
law  by  common  consent.  The  right  of  resistance  to  oppression 
attaches  to  the  oppressed,  whether  a  majority  or  a  minority  of  a 
state,  a  country,  or  a  nation,  and  success  vindicates  the  right. 
The  assumption  of  the  revolutionary  bodies  to  bind  the  people 
of  a  State  by  the  formalities  of  a  vote  is  as  ridiculous  as  it  is  im 
potent  ;  their  law  directing  the  vote  is  a  nullity ;  and  the  result 
expresses  the  will  only  of  those  who  concur  in  it.  If  by  the  usur 
pation  they  can  beat  down  domestic  opposition,  and  defy  the 
United  States,  they  vindicate  their  right  by  power ;  if  they  fail, 
they  pay  the  penalty  of  failure.  We  in  Maryland  will  submit  to 
no  attempt  of  a  minority  or  a  majority  to  drag  us  from  under  the 
flag  of  the  Union.  The  Committee  of  Thirty-three  have  carefully 
considered  the  proposed  restrictions  on  the  change  of  certain  ar 
ticles  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States: 

The  minority  propose  to  prohibit  by  amendment  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  forts,  dock-yards,  and  District  of  Columbia,  and 
of  the  slave-trade  between  the  slave  States ;  and  to  make  those 
prohibitions,  and  also  the  article  touching  the  ratio  of  representa 
tion  and  fugitives  from  labor,  unchangeable. 

But  no  party  from  any  quarter  now  proposes  to  touch  them, 
and  the  committee  thought  a  simple  declaration  of  that  fact  more 
satisfactory  and  prudent  than  to  open  the  agitation  by  asking 
three  fourths  of  the  States  to  agree  not  to  do  what  no  one  pro 
poses  to  do.  Those  topics  are  agitated,  not  at  the  North,  but  at 
the  South,  and  merely  for  political  effect. 

But  the  question  of  the  immunity  of  slavery  in  the  States  is 
very  different.  It  exists  by  state  authority.  When  established, 


216     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

the  Constitution  guarantees  it.  And  the  impression  having  been 
studiously  made  on  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  slaveholding 
states  that  the  North  design  at  some  future  time  to  destroy  slav 
ery,  the  majority  of  the  committee  propose  to  quiet  forever  that 
apprehension,  and  anew  to  consecrate  the  principle  of  state  rights 
in  internal  matters  by  forbidding  any  change  in  the  Constitution 
affecting  slavery  in  the  States. 

That  guarantee,  as  proposed  by  the  gentleman  from  Massachu 
setts  [Mr.  Adams],  in  my  judgment,  is  more  ample  and  more  satis 
factory  than  the  corresponding  proposition  offered  by  the  minori 
ty.  They  propose  that  no  alteration  of  the  Constitution  shall  be 
made  authorizing  Congress  to  abolish  slavery.  The  proposition 
of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  is,  that  there  shall  be  no 
amendment  affecting  the  relation  of  persons  held  to  labor  within 
a  State  at  all,  whether  directly  through  the  Constitution,  or  in 
directly  through  the  Congress,  unless  by  the  consent  of  all  tka 
States,  and  upon  motion  of  a  slave  State ;  so  that,  with  extreme 
astuteness,  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts 
guards  against  that  which  is  really  our  greatest  evil,  the  begin 
ning  of  agitation  for  the  purpose  of  varying  the  Constitution  in 
this  respect.  The  motion  can  only  be  made  by  a  slave  State.  No 
free  State  can  ever  open  the  question  of  the  repeal,  or  change  that 
article  of  the  Constitution.  I  submit,  therefore,  that  the  report  of 
the  majority,  in  that  respect,  is  far  more  satisfactory  than  that  of 
the  minority. 

The  failure  to  surrender  fugitives  from  justice,  when  the  crime 
is  connected  with  slavery,  has  been  a  topic  of  endless  crimination. 
The  report  of  the-  minority  refers  to  the  complaint.  But  not  only 
does  it  propose  no  remedy,  but  actually  passes  in  silence  the  very 
important  bill  of  the  majority  of  the  committee,  effectually  end 
ing  the  controversy  by  transferring  from  the  executive  of  the 
State  to  the  judiciary  of  the  United  States  the  power  and  duty  of 
making  the  surrender.  This  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction — re 
suming  by  the  United  States  the  right  to  administer  its  own  laws, 
and  freeing  itself  from  all  dependence  on  State  officers  whom  it 
can  not  control. 

There  are,  Mr.  Speaker,  other  complaints  mentioned  by  the  mi 
nority  of  the  committee  for  which  they  have  proposed  no  reme 
dy.  We  have  seen  what  remedies  they  propose.  And  they  think 
the  adoption  of  their  propositions  ought  to  give  peace  and  quiet 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      217 

to  the  country.  Yet  there  are  other  topics  treated  in  their  report 
quite  as  significant  as  those ;  other  grounds  of  discontent  and  ap 
prehension  for  which  the  minority  have  proposed  no  remedy, 
against  wBich  they  ask  no  guarantee.  The  causes  of  complaint 
left  without  redress  are  vastly  more  important  than  those  cover 
ed  by  the  enactments  proposed.  They  are  wholly  unaffected  by 
them ;  yet  the  minority  of  the  committee,  while  devoting  whole 
pages  to  the  development  of  dangers  and  outrages  consummated 
or  apprehended,  leave  them  without  any  suggestion  for  redress 
or  protection.  They  think  "the  object  aimed  at  can  be  accom 
plished  by  the  adoption  of  the  series  of  amendments  to  the  Con 
stitution  rejected  by  the  committee,  and  now  reported  to  the 
House" — that  "they  afford  such  a  basis  of  an  adjustment  as  they 
would  all  cheerfully  accept,  with  a  strong  conviction  that,  if  the 
proposed  amendments  were  adopted  by  the  Northern  States,  har 
mony  and  peace  would  be  restored  to  our  people." 

Sir,  nothing  in  legislative  history  is  more  instructive  than  these 
declarations,  compared  with  the  narrative  of  wrongs  and  appre 
hensions  which  precede  them,  and  the  remedies  which  I  have 
enumerated. 

They  have  complained  that  the  right  of  transit  is  refused,  yet 
there  is  no  proposal  that  it  be  granted. 

The  gentleman  from  Louisiana  [Mr.  Taylor]  heads  the  list  of 
wrongs  in  his  report  with  the  refusal  to  protect  slaves  upon  the 
ocean  and  in  foreign  countries.  I  presume,  to  the  extent  of  in 
ternational  law,  they  are  now  so  protected ;  but  whether  they  are 
or  not,  that  was  not  apparently  considered  of  sufficient  importance 
to  justify  any  recommendation  on  the  subject,  and  the  complaint 
merely  swells  the  list  of  irritative  topics. 

The  minority  bitterly  complain  of  the  Northern  hostility  to 
slavery,  the  circulation  of  incendiary  pamphlets,  the  perpetual  ap 
peal  through  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  the  never-ceasing  activity 
of  the  abolition  societies,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  irrepressible  con 
flict  so  much  invoked  during  the  last  few  years  for  the  purpose 
and  with  the  effect  of  heating  the  public  mind.  If  these  com 
plaints  be  true — if  they  are  the  causes  of  the  present  discontent — 
if  they  have  shaken  the  security  of  Southern  society,  then  how 
can  peace  and  harmony  be  restored  by  measures  which  have  no 
relation  to  the  cause  of  discontent  and  apprehension  ?  If  they 
have  caused  the  excitement  which  threatens  the  integrity  of  the 


218     THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

government,  how  is  it  that  gentlemen,  after  enumerating  the  griev 
ance,  propose  to  rest  content  without  redress  ?  No  guarantee  of 
slavery  will  silence  agitation,  or  the  pulpit  or  the  press,  or  incen 
diary  publications,  or  incitements  to  revolt,  or  the  organized  in 
vasion  of  States.  Yet  so  important  is  this  topic  considered,  that 
one  of  the  gentlemen  who  signed  the  minority  report,  in  default 
of  adequate  proof,  argued  the  ineradicable  hostility  of  the  North 
to  slavery,  and  their  resolution  to  exterminate  it  in  spite  of  every 
constitutional  guarantee — even  those  which  would  "  restore  peace 
and  harmony  to  our  people" — because  their  party  platforms  op 
posed  it,  and  they  were  honorable  men,  and  therefore  must,  in  the 
face  of  their  disclaimers  and  denials,  and  of  the  very  declarations 
of  the  platform  itself,  consistently  go  on  and — despite  the  Con 
stitution  and  contrary  to  its  provisions — attempt  to  break  up  the 
relation  of.  master  and  slave  in  the  slave  States. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  suppose  that  if,  as  the  gentleman  who  made  that 
argument  said,  they  are  honorable  men,  then  of  course  their  word 
is  to  be  taken  rather  than  the  inference  from  a  doubtful  political 
platform.  Political  platforms  are  entitled  to  small  respect  from 
any  quarter.  They  are,  sir,  nothing  but  sails  spread  to  catch  the 
popular  breeze.  It  depends  upon  the  pilot  whether  the  ship  shall 
sail  before  the  wind,  or  close-hauled  and  in  a  different  direction. 
Least  of  all  does  it  become  gentlemen  who  first  agreed  that  a  Ter 
ritory  should  be  allowed  to  regulate  its  own  institutions  in  its 
own  way,  and  then  considered  the  forcing  of  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitution  on  the  people  against  their  will  a  fair  execution  of  that 
policy,  to  argue  that  any  very  rigid  consistency  between  the  plat 
form  and  the  policy  of  a  party  is  to  be  expected  in  the  course  of 
political  strife;  yet  to  such  shifts  are  gentlemen  driven  in  their 
efforts  to  show — in  spite  of  the  resolutions  of  the  majority  of  the 
Committee  of  Thirty -three  and  their  unanimous  disavowal — that 
the  Northern  people  do  contemplate  disturbing  slavery  in  the 
States.  The  importance  of  retaining  that  impression  is  not  over 
estimated  ;  for  if  it  be  yielded,  the  revolutionists  will  have  few 
followers,  and  peace  and  harmony  will  be  restored  to  our  people 
in  spite  of  every  effort  to  disturb  them. 

[The  following,  owing  to  interruptions,  was  not  delivered  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
sentatives :  J 

A  more  marvelous  contrast  awaits  us. 

The  minority  report  with  great  elaboration  depicts  the  rise  of 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.     219 

a  purely  sectional  party,  determined  to  rule  the  Southern  States 
by  the  Northern  votes,  united  by  hostility  to  slavery  alone  ;  de 
clared  that  its  triumph  reduces  the  people  of  the  South  from  citi 
zens  to  subjects ;  and  that  by  the  late  election  the  work  of  section 
alism  was  completed,  to  the  apprehension  of  the  people  of  the 
South ;  and  if  that  apprehension  be  not  speedily  removed,  the  days 
of  the  Republic  are  numbered.  They  find  countenance  for  this 
view  in  the  South  Carolina  and  Alabama  ordinances.  Read  the 
remarkable  recital  of  the  Alabama  ordinance : 

"Whereas,  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Hannibal  Hamlin  to  the 
offices  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  by  a  sectional  party 
avowedly  hostile  to  the  domestic  institutions  and  peace  and  security  of  the  people 
of  the  State  of  Alabama,  following  upon  the  heels  of  many  and  dangerous  infrac 
tions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  by  many  of  the  States  and  people  of  the 
Northern  section,  is  a  political  wrong  of  so  insulting  and  menacing  a  character  as 
to  justify  the  people  of  the  State  of  Alabama  in  the  adoption  of  prompt  and  decided 
m ensures  for  their  future  peace  and  security/' 

The  revolutionists  of  Alabama  for  those  causes  tear  themselves 
away  from  the  government ;  the  'minority  of  the  committee  reiter 
ate  the  complaint,  and  leave  it  unredressed.  They  are  silent  on 
the  remedy  for  the  great  grievance — the  accomplished  fact  of  sec 
tional  domination — the  inauguration  of  a  party  bent  on  reducing 
the  people  of  the  South  from  citizens  to  subjects — that  great  po 
litical  wrong  of  so  "  insulting  and  menacing  a  character,"  the 
election  of  a  President  "  by  a  sectional  party  avowedly  hostile  to 
the  domestic  institutions,  peace,  and  security  of  the  people"  of  the 
South.  They  leave  it  unredressed  —  unless  a 'right  to  expand 
into  new  territory  be  a  compensation  for  the  right  of  self-govern 
ment,  or  absolute  security  for  existing  rights  touching  slavery  be 
an  indemnity  for  the  loss  of  "  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the 
national  affairs,  in  which  they  have  a  common  interest  with  their 
Northern  brethren." 

Sir,  that  is  impossible.  We  know  that  the  Southern  people 
and  those  gentlemen  who  signed  the  report  count  the  right  of 
self-government  infinitely  above  all  rights  of  property  and  all 
personal  security.  If  they  really  feared  such  a  domination,  they 
would  spurn  accommodation  on  any  terms. 

Sir,  the  majority  must  rule.  Particular  interests  will  aggregate 
in  particular  localities,  and  parties  will  group  themselves  around 
interests ;  the  East  will  be  manufacturing,  the  West  agricultural, 


220      THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE. 

New  York  commercial,  and  Pennsylvania  interested  in  iron  and 
coal ;  Alabama  will  grow  cotton,  and  Louisiana  sugar ;  Virginia 
will  grow  tobacco,  wheat,  and  corn ;  but  a  coalition  of  such  inter 
ests  to  oppress  others  is  without  example  in  our  history,  and  if  ef 
fected,  could  be  only  temporary.  Such  a  coalition  of  the  free 
States  is  absolutely  absurd.  The  South  has  always  been  able  by 
its  one  common  interest  to  impose  on  the  divided  North  its  policy 
and  views ;  the  North  has  no  bond  of  Union,  no  one  pervading 
and  common  interest  so  controlling  as  to  concentrate  its  power 
and  dictate  its  policy.  It  unites  only  in  the  negative  interests  of 
repelling  the  intrusion  of  slavery  on  its  borders.  It  never  united 
for  that  defensive  purpose  till  the  South  united  to  invade  the  do 
main  secured  to  it  by  the  Missouri  Compromise.  This  defensive 
and  reluctant  union,  only  partially  effected,  is  the  pretext  for  these 
exaggerated  and  sombre  pictures  of  political  subjection.  Web 
ster,  failing  to  unite  them  in  defense  of  their  interests,  exclaimed, 
"  There  is  no  North."  Southern  politicians  have  created  a  North. 
Let  us  trace  the  process  and  draw  the  moral. 

The  laws  of  1850  calmed  and  closed  the  slavery  agitation  ;  and 
President  Pierce,  elected  by  the  almost  unanimous  voice  of  the 
States,  did  not  mention  slavery  in  his  first  two  messages.  In  1854, 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  at  the  instance  of  the 
South,  reopened  the  agitation. 

Northern  men,  deserted  by  Southern  Whigs,  were  left  to  unite 
for  self-defense. 

The  invasion  of  Kansas  in  1855  and  1856  from  Missouri ;  the 
making  a  Legislature  and  laws  for  that  Territory  by  the  invaders 
still  farther  united  the  Northern  people.  The  election  of  1856 
measured  its  extent. 

The  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  opening  policy  in  Kan 
sas  soothed  the  irritation,  and  was  rapidly  demoralizing  the  new 
party,  when  the  pro-slavery  party  in  Kansas  perpetrated,  and  the 
President  and  the  South  accepted  the  Lecompton  fraud,  and  again 
united  the  North  more  resolutely  in  resistance  to  that  invasion  of 
the  rights  of  self-government. 

The  South  for  the  first  time  failed  to  dictate  terms,  and  the  peo 
ple  vindicated  by  their  votes  the  refusal  of  the  Constitution. 

Ere  this  result  was  attained,  the  opinions  of  certain  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  scattered  doubts  over  the  law  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories;  the  South,  while  repudiating  other  decisions,  in- 


THE  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THIRTY-THREE.      221 

stantly  made  these  opinions  the  criterion  of  faithfulness  to  the 
Constitution,  while  the  North  was  agitated  by  this  new  sanction 
of  the  extremest  pretensions  of  their  opponents. 

The  South  did  not  rest  satisfied  with  their  judicial  triumph. 

Immediately  the  claim  was  pressed  for  protection  by  Congress 
to  slavery,  declared  by  the  Supreme  Court,  they  said,  to  exist  in 
all  the  Territories. 

This  completed  the  Union  of  the  free  States  in  one  great  de 
fensive  league,  and  the  result  was  registered  in  November.  That 
result  is  now,  itself,  become  the  starting-point  of  new  agitation — 
the  demand  of  new  rights  and  new  guarantees.  The  claim  to  ac 
cess  to  the  Territories  was  followed  by  the  claim  to  congressional 
protection,  and  that  is  now  followed  by  the  hitherto  unheard-of 
claim  to  a  constitutional  amendment  establishing  slavery,  not 
merely  in  territory  now  held,  but  in  all  hereafter  held  from  the 
line  of  36°  30'  to  Cape  Horn,  while  the  debate  foreshadows  in  the 
distance  the  claim  of  the  right  of  transit  and  the  placing  of  prop 
erty  in  slaves  in  all  respects  on  the  footing  of  other  property — the 
topics  of  future  agitation.  How  long  the  prohibition  of  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  will  be  exemplified  from  the  doctrine  of  equal 
ity  it  needs  no  prophet  to  tell. 

In  the  face  of  this  recital,  let  the  imputation  of  autocratic  and 
tyrannical  aspirations  cease  to  be  cast  on  the  people  of  the  free 
States ;  let  the  Southern  people  dismiss  their  fears,  return  to  their 
friendly  confidence  in  their  fellow-citizens  of  the  North,  and  ac 
cept  as  pledges  of  returning  peace  the  salutary  amendments  of  the 
law  and  the  Constitution  offered  as  the  first  fruits  of  reconcilia 
tion. 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 
ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OP  THE  NATION, 
OCTOBER  16,  1861. 

IMMEDIATELY  upon  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  on  the  news  of  the 
first  movement  toward  rebellion  in  South  Carolina,  efforts  were  made  by 
those  parties  in  Maryland  who  approved  of  or  sympathized  with  those 
movements  to  induce  Governor  Hicks  to  call  an  extraordinary  session 
of  the  General  Assembly.  As  he  knew  the  views  and  wishes  of  very 
many  of  such  parties,  and  there  was  an  intention  expressed,  by  even  the 
more  moderate  of  them,  of  associating  this  state  in  any  action  which 
might  be  taken  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  and  as  he  felt  con 
vinced,  from  his  own  knowledge  and  observation,  as  well  as  from  the  nu 
merous  counter-memorials  (against  such  call),  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  state  were  opposed  to  such  a  session  at  that  time,  he 
steadily  refused  to  yield.  Pie  also  declined  to  take  any  part  in  any  joint 
action,  conference,  or  league  with  the  States  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama, 
whose  commissioners  visited  Annapolis  to  confer  with  him.  When  it 
was  found  the  governor  was  not  likely  to  yield  to  these,  a  "  State  Con 
ference  Convention"  was  called  and  held,  by  parties  in  favor  of  such  as 
sembling  of  the  Legislature,  on  the  18th  of  February,  in  Baltimore. 
This  Convention  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  state,  declaring 
it  to  be  the  duty  of  Maryland,  if  conciliation  should  fail,  to  follow  such 
course  as  might  be  adopted  by  Virginia.  Some  members  of  this  Con 
vention  reassembled  on  the  12th  of  March,  and,  after  reiterating  their 
resolutions  of  the  18th  of  February,  appointed  a  committee  of  six  to  visit 
and  confer  with  the  Virginia  Convention. 

Amid  increasing  excitement  throughout  the  country,  the  rebel  batter 
ies  erected  in  Charleston  Harbor  opened  their  fire  against  the  United 
States  garrison  in  Fort  Sumter  on  the  12th  of  April. 

On  the  news  of  that  disgrace  the  North  and  West  arose.  The  Presi 
dent  issued  (April  loth)  his  call  for  seventy-five  thousand  volunteers, 
and  called  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  for  the  4th  of  July. 

On  the  same  day  Mr.  Davis  announced  that  he  "would  be  a  candidate 
for  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress,  on  the  basis  of  an  unconditional  support 
of  the  Union  and  the  government ;  but  that  if  his  fellow-citizens  of  like 
views  should  declare  in  favor  of  any  other  candidate  on  that  lasts,  it  was 
not  his  intention  to  embarrass  them." 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE,  ETC.         223 

A  Union  mass  meeting  had  been  called  in  Baltimore  for  the  22d  of 
April,  when,  on  the  19th,  the  mob,  incited  by  some  of  the  secessionists, 
attacked  the  troops  from  Massachusetts  (Sixth  Regiment)  proceeding  to 
Washington  in  response  to  the  President's  call.  The  track  over  which 
the  cars  containing  those  troops  were  to  pass  was  torn  up  or  obstructed, 
and  an  assault  was  made  on  them  with  stones  and  discharges  of  fire-arms 
as  they  attempted  to  march  to  the  Washington  Station.  Several  per 
sons  and  some  of  the  soldiers  were  killed,  and  a  number  of  these  who 
failed  to  get  through  to  the  train  for  Washington  retreated  toward  Phil 
adelphia.  The  wildest  excitement  prevailed  in  the  city,  and  an  attempt 
was  made  to  organize  an  armed  opposition  to  the  passage  through  Bal 
timore  of  United  States  troops. 

In  the  afternoon  the  mob  and  its  leaders  reigned  supreme,  and  on  that 
night  the  bridges  on  the  railway  leading  to  Harrisburg  and  Philadelphia 
were  burned  by  order  of  the  parties  who  had  assumed  control  in  Balti 
more.  The  telegraph  wires  were  cut,  and  all  communication  of  the  gov 
ernment  at  Washington  with  the  North  was  intercepted.  The  Board  of 
Police  Commissioners  laid  restrictions  on  the  commerce  of  the  port,  for 
bade  the  display  of  flags  of  any  description,  distributed  arms  to  volun 
teers,  and  appointed  a  commanding  general.  It  was  the  evident  determ 
ination  of  the  secessionists  and  their  friends  to  prevent  the  passage  of 
United  States  troops  to  Washington  through  Baltimore.  Secession  flags 
were  displayed  on  the  18th  on  Federal  Hill,  and  on  the  20th  at  the 
Southern  head-quarters  on  Fayette  Street ;  and  it  had  previously  been 
hoisted  on  a  merchant-vessel  at  the  Point.  The  governor  returned  to 
Annapolis  on  the  20th,  and,  yielding  at  last  to  clamor  and  threats,  pro 
tested,  on  the  21st,  against  the  landing  there  of  "  Northern  troops" 
(meaning  the  United  States  troops  who  had  come  down  the  bay  from 
Perry villc,  opposite  Havre  de  Grace),  gravely  proposed  to  the  President 
to  refer  all  matters  then  in  dispute  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  British  min 
ister,  and  finally,  next  day,  issued  his  call  for  the  General  Assembly, 
which  was  to  meet  on  the  20 th  at  Frederick. 

An  election  of  delegates  in  Baltimore  was  held  on  the  24th,  while  the 
city  was  still  under  the  effects  of  the  mob  of  the  19th,  was  yet  without 
communication  with  the  seat  of  government,  or  with  the  North  and  West, 
and  yet  under  the  control  of  the  military  authorities  appointed  by  the 
Police  Commissioners.  At  this  election  9249  votes  were  cast,  all  for  the 
only  set  of  candidates  named.  As  soon  as  this  result  was  known  affairs 
began  rapidly  to  mend  ;  and  on  the  5th  and  13th  of  May,  when  the  Unit 
ed  States  troops  occupied  the  heights  at  the  Relay,  on  the  Washington 
Railway,  and  on  Federal  Hill,  it  was  seen  that  the  minority  was  not 
to  determine  the  fate  of  Maryland. 

On  the  17th  of  May  Mr.  Davis  was  nominated  for  Congress,  his  com 
petitor  being  the  Hon.  Henry  May,  who  accepted  an  independent  nomi- 


224  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

nation  as  a  friend  of  the  Union,  in  favor  of  conciliation,  compromise,  and 
settlement,  and  entirely  opposed  to  the  Republican  party.  Mr.  Davis 
during  the  canvass  openly  declared  himself  in  favor  of  coercion,  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  federal  authority  by  force,  if  necessary.  He  boldly 
avowed  that  he  had  voted  against  the  proposed  "  Crittenden"  Compro 
mise  (which  was  undoubtedly  the  preference  of  the  people  of  Maryland), 
because  he  thought  it  impracticable,  and  imposed  terms  to  which  the 
free  states  ought  not  to  be  asked  to,  and  could  not  submit. 

The  election  took  place  on  the  13th  of  June,  and  Mr.  May  was  elected 
(8335)  over  Mr.  Davis  (G287)  by  a  majority  of  2048.' 

During  the  summer  of  1861  the  country  suffered  the  humiliations  of 
Bethel,  Manassas,  and  Ball's  Bluff.  Then  the  administration  began  to 
perceive  the  necessity  of  organization,  and  of  an  army  that  should  be  of 
better  material  than  undriiled  recruits  and  parade  militiamen.  General 
M'Clellan  was  appointed  to  the  command  in  chief,  and  the  country  be 
gan  to  awake  to  the  reality — to  a  sense  of  the  resources,  the  valor,  and 
determination  of  the  Southern  States.  These,  now  completely  united 
among  themselves,  and  encouraged  by  the  failure  of  the  first  federal  ef 
forts  against  them,  firmly  believed  they  could  obtain,  and  resolutely  car 
ried  on  the  war  for  their  independence. 

Mr.  Davis  was  invited  in  October,  by  a  large  number  of  the  principal 
citizens,  merchants,  mechanics,  and  business  men,  to  address  them  on  the 
condition  of  affairs.  He  complied,  and  spoke  on  the  16th  as  follows: 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
(applause), — Time  and  events,  the  great  instructors,  have  dispelled 
many  a  delusion,  stripped  off  many  a  mask,  and  reduced  to  cer 
tainty  many  things  about  which  men  some  months  ago  might 
have  ventured  to  doubt.  Who  now  talks  of  reconstruction  as 
the  purpose  of  secession  ?  Who  now  talks  of  peaceful  secession  ? 
Who  now  dreams  of  secession  as  a  constitutional  right  to  be  de 
termined  at  the  ballot-box  and  to  be  acquiesced  in,  now  that 
invading  armies  are  trampling  down  the  soil  of  Kentucky,  and 
marching  through  and  through  the  territory  of  Missouri,  in  spite 
of  the  repeatedly  expressed  will  of  their  people  ?  The  mask  of 
hypocrisy  has  been  stripped  from  those  pretenses. 

There  have  been  expectations,  likewise,  disappointed.  There 
were  those  who,  when  they  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  against 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  fondly  supposed  that  cotton 
was  king.  (Laughter.)  They  dreamed  that  his  upstart  majesty 
would  bring  to  their  knees  Great  Britain  and  France,  incapable 
of  controlling  their  laboring  population  without  that  aliment  of 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  225 

their  industry.  They  dreamed  that  if  a  blockade  should  inter 
pose  an  obstruction  to  the  free  exit  of  cotton,  English  and  French 
fleets  would  sweep  the  ships  of  the  Union  from  before  the  South 
ern  ports;  that  if  armies  of  invasion  should  venture  to  touch 
"  the  sacred  soil"  of  the  cotton-field,  that  imperative  necessity 
would  require  that  England  and  France  should  retaliate  by  block 
ading  Boston  and  New  York,  and  that  if  these  gentle  measures 
were  not  sufficient,  their  armed  intervention  here  would  be  re 
quired  to  secure  them  peace  at  home.  Whether  the  six  months 
during  which  this  contest  has  progressed  have  been  sufficient  yet 
to  remove  these  delusions  from  the  minds  of  those  who  fondly  re 
posed  in  them  as  a  source  of  strength,  you  now  can  judge.  Nay, 
those  who  led  in  that  rebellion  misled  their  deluded  fellow-citizens 
into  supposing  that  it  was  not  an  organized  resistance  to  the  gov 
ernment  in  only  one  portion  of  the  Union,  but  that  disintegration 
had  wrought  its  work  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  republic, 
and  that  whenever  there  should  be  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
government  to  strike  a  blow  for  the  maintenance  of  its  integrity, 
it  would  not  be  the  rebellious  States  of  the  South  alone  that  would 
have  to  meet  the  brunt  of  the  contest,  but  that  "the  Northern 
myrmidons  of  Abraham  Lincoln"  (laughter),  his  "hireling  men" 
sent  to  trample  down  the  South,  would  be  met,  arrested,  and  over 
thrown  by  the  faithful  Democrats  of  the  North  (laughter),  sub 
servient  for  a  long  generation  to  Southern  dictation,  as  they  fondly 
supposed  their  allies,  not  merely  in  the  pursuit  of  political  power 
by  the  ballot-box,  but  also  in  arms  of  rebellion,  having  no  purpose 
but  to  elevate  some  man  to  power,  who  might  share  the  plunder 
with  them,  and  ready  to  imbrue  their  hands  in  their  neighbor's 
blood  rather  than  allow  insurrection  to  be  suppressed  by  military 
power.  (Applause.)  It  is  probable  that,  however  any  other  de 
lusion  may  still  cling  around  their  vision,  that  one,  at  least,  has 
faded  away. 

And  then,  fellow-citizens,  events  have  taught  us  something 
more.  Men  have  waked  from  the  dream  of  that  millennium  of  a 
Southern  republic  peaceful  in  guise,  merciful  in  disposition,  rest 
ing  upon  the  unconstrained  will  of  its  people,  carrying  out  an  in 
dustrial  theory  amid  its  patriarchal  institutions,  coercing  nobody, 
doing  violence  to  nobody,  peacefully  pursuing  its  commercial  and 
industrial  interests !  They  who  so  dreamed  and  so  spoke,  and  felt 

P 


926  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

a  soft  inclination  toward  "  our  Southern  brethren,"  have  had  some 
rather  rude  instruction  upon  that  topic.  (Laughter.) 

They  have  inaugurated  instead  an  era  of  confiscations,  proscrip 
tions,  and  exiles.  Kead  their  acts  of  greedy  confiscation,  their  laws 
of  proscription  by  the  thousand.  Behold  the  flying  exiles  from 
the  unfriendly  soil  of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri.  Andrew 
Johnson  an  exile  from  Tennessee!  (Applause.)  Emerson  Eth- 
eridge  (great  applause)  dare  not  go  home  for  fear  of  arrest,  prose 
cution,  and  death  by  the  hangman,  if  the  swifter  and  more  con 
genial  assassin  leave  him  to  their  mercy.  Thomas  A.  R.  Kelson 
seized  on  his  transit  to  the  capital  of  the  United  States,  incarcer 
ated,  and  compelled  by  threats  to  his  life  to  forego  the  allegiance 
to  his  native  land.  John  S.  Carlisle  (great  applause)  pursued  by 
a  writ  for  his  arrest  because  he  would  not  be  a  traitor.  And  the 
partisans  in  Maryland  of  the  men  who  do  these  things  make  our 
streets  hideous  with  their  howl  about  "  oppression,"  and  invoke 
all  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  that  their  allies  have  spent 
now  nearly  a  year  in  making  a  dead  letter,  to  secure  their  immu 
nity  here  and  convert  this  heaven  into  their  hell.  (Applause.) 

Fellow-citizens,  these  events  have  worked  another  and  a  re 
markable  change  here.  They  have  disposed  of  nearly  the  whole 
of  that  wretched  class  of  middle-men  ;  men  who  are  secessionists 
with  Union  proclivities  (laughter),  or  Unionists  with  secession  pro 
clivities  (laughter) ;  men  who  are  for  the  Union  and  against  coer 
cion  (laughter) ;  who  are  opposed  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 
and  equally  opposed  to  having  it  maintained  ;  who  think  the  gov 
ernment  ought  to  assert  its  authority  if  men  will  submit  to  it,  but 
if  not,  that  it  ought  to  submit  to  them  ;  men  who  think  that  rulers 
do  bear  the  sword  in  vain ;  men  who  confess  with  a  sigh  their  al 
legiance  to  the  government,  but  that  their  hearts  are  with  the 
South — the  men  of  compromise,  the  men  of  concessions,  the  men 
of  "Southern"  feelings,  the  men  of  "  Southern"  proclivities,  and 
sympathies,  and  inclinations.  All  that  class  of  men  who  concealed 
their  treasonable  purposes  under  the  flimsy  disguises  that  recent 
ly  deluded  our  people  no  longer  deceive  any  one.  The  enemy  is 
at  the  door,  and  the  people  of  Maryland  know  that  they  who  are 
not  their  friends  are  their  enemies  ("That's  so."  Applause); 
that  they  who  are  not  upon  the  side  of  the  government  are  against 
it  ("That's  so");  that  they  who  are  not  for  repelling  the  invader 
mean  to  invite  him  here ;  that  they  who  do  not  wish  the  rebellion 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  227 

stamped  out  in  Virginia  mean  that  it  shall  cross  the  Potomac  into 
Maryland;  they  who  do  not  wish  M'Clellan  to  winter  in  New 
Orleans  want  Jefferson  Davis  to  winter  in  Baltimore.  They  have 
known  all  along,  and  we  know  now,  even  the  most  doubting  of 
us,  as  well  as  they  know,  who  are  our  enemies  and  who  are  our 
friends ;  and  if  we  have  treated  some  of  our  enemies  to  their  de 
serts,  let  not  those  who  walk  at  large  and  insult  the  mercy  of  the 
government  suppose  that  there  is  any  impassable  barrier  between 
them  and  the  companionship  of  their  friends.  (Great  applause.) 
They  have  no  right  to  complain.  In  the  face  of  the  mercy  of  the 
government  which  they  perpetually  abuse,  they  insolently  meet 
patient  Union  men  upon  the  corners  of  the  streets,  in  their  count 
ing-rooms,  and  in  the  parlor,  and  on  the  Merchants'  Exchange, 
and  wherever  men  "  most  do  congregate ;"  and  while  they  writhe 
under  the  blow  that  has  stricken  them  down  here  and  taken  from 
them  the  fruits  of  their  treason  before  they  could  fully  enjov 
them,  their  only  comfort  is  to  appeal  to  the  future,  to  promise  ret 
ribution,  to  intimate  that  assassination  may  cut  short  those  who 
treat  them  as  traitors ;  that  if  ever  they  get  the  upper  hand  the 
lamp-post  will  be  graced  by  individuals  that  they  name ;  that  they 
will  not  be  as  insanely  merciful  as  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is;  and  these  things  while  they  venture  to  impeach  the 
government  for  harsh  and  oppressive  measures ! 

Gentlemen,  we  have  great  patience.  With  the  liberty  of  every 
one  of  these  individuals  in  the  grasp  of  the  government  if  it 
choose  to  close  the  hand  upon  them  —  with  their  lives  at  our 
mercy  if  we  only  choose  to  invoke  their  precedent  and  set  loose 
the  mob  that  they  organized  upon  the  19th  of  April — with  the 
example  of  their  avowed  confederates,  who  have  exiled  our  friends, 
confiscated  their  property,  outraged  and  scourged  our  flying  sis 
ters — with  these  provocations,  these  men  have  so  little  of  prudence 
or  such  profound  conviction  that  loyal  men  differ  from  traitors  in 
that  they  execute  the  law  in  mercy  and  forbearing  kindness — 
these  men  venture  to  tell  us  that  our  time  will  come  when  they 
get  the  -uppermost.  I  doubt  not,  gentlemen ;  but  ivhen!  (Laugh 
ter.)  When  ?  "  Two  weeks  "  has  been  the  period  of  expectation 
of  the  prophets  of  the  Southern  millennium  for  the  last  six  months 
(great  laughter),  and  still  time  drags  slowly  on  to  the  movable 
feast  of  the  secession.  Two  weeks  is  marked  for  the  crossing  of 
the  Potomac  from  day  to  day,  and  still  the  water  rolls  on  unpol- 


228  ADDKESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

luted  by  a  traitor's  foot.  (Applause.)  Nay,  it  is  even  said  that 
gentlemen  traitors,  of  delicate  breeding  and  aristocratic  preten 
sions,  whose  patriotism  always  assumes  the  form  of  a  supper 
(laughter),  have  already  spoiled  one  through  the  watches  of  one 
long  wearisome  night  in  the  vain  expectation  that  the  lips  of  the 
deliverer  might  taste  their  wine.  (Laughter.)  Will  these  proph 
ets  tell  us  when  ? 

Fellow-citizens,  the  time  for  doubting  men  has  gone ;  even  the 
time  for  " peace"  men  has  gone.  (Laughter.)  They  have  in 
voked  every  thing  else,  and  now  they  can  scarcely  find  advocates 
to  invoke  peace.  "Blessed  peace"  goes  begging  in  the  midst  of 
this  warlike  state.  "  Blessed  peace"  can  find  no  advocates  now 
that  her  advocates  are  incarcerated.  u  Blessed  peace"  is  no  argu 
ment  to  urge  now  in  the  presence  of  embattled  hosts.  And  why  ? 
Not  because  there  are  not  people  who  want  peace ;  peace,  accom 
panied  even  with  the  triumph  of  the  traitors ;  peace  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  integrity  of  the  government ;  peace  at  the  cost  of 
every  interest  of  the  State  of  Maryland ;  peace,  though  it  soil  our 
national  escutcheon  with  degradation  and  defeat.  There  are  men 
who  will  crawl  in  the  dirt  still  for  peace;  but  there  is  nobody  now 
who  can  be  deluded  into  believing  that  peace  means  any  thing 
but  humiliation,  disgrace,  degradation,  national  dissolution,  the 
end  of  the  republic,  the  beginning  of  the  scorn  and  contempt  of 
the  world.  (Great  applause.)  Ye  men  of  Maryland  who  will 
crawl  to  the  altar  of  peace,  crawl  there ;  but  ye  men  of  Maryland' 
who  remember  that  your  forefathers  thought  seven  years  of  war 
better  than  peace  with  submission  and  degradation,  I  appeal  to 
you  here  this  night  to  revive  the  recollection  of  those  great  days, 
and  act  upon  their  inspiration.  (Great  applause.) 

And  Maryland,  too,  is  she  disloyal  ?  (No,  no.)  There  are  those 
who  say  so.  There  are  those  who  say  so  in  our  State ;  there  are 
those  who  say  so  abroad ;  there  are  those  in  power  who  believe 
it,  and  there  are  those  who  are  not  in  power,  but  who  skulk  about 
in  the  darkness  of  the  alleys  of  this  great  city,  and  carry  whisper 
ing  to  the  ear  of  power  their  slanders  on  their  fellow-citizens,  or 
spread  them  broadcast  by  the  press  all  over  the  country,  until 
Maryland  stands  almost  in  as  ill  repute  as  if  she  had  lifted  her 
hand  in  arms  against  the  government  that  she  adores  and  will 
maintain ;  and  because  of  one  deplorable  and  humiliating  event, 
the  result  of  weakness  in  some  of  our  rulers  and  of  treachery  in 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  229 

others,  there  are  those  in  one  great  region  of  this  country  who 
treat  the  State  of  Maryland  as  the  whole  South  lately  treated  the 
whole  North.  The  time  was  when  one  fanatic,  inflamed  by  ha 
tred,  started  out  to  make  war  upon  the  State  of  Virginia  and  set 
its  negroes  free,  with  twenty  men  at  his  back.  (Laughter.)  He 
was  seized  and  hung.  All  the  South  with  one  acclaim  laid  that 
dastardly  and  crazy  deed  at  the  door  of  every  man  throughout  the 
great  regions  of  the  civilized  and  Christian  North ;  and  there  was 
no  voice  from  the  South  in  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  but  one, 
and  that  one  ventured  it  at  the  peril  of  his  political  existence,  to 
defend  the  North  from  that  imputation.  (Applause.)  And  now 
the  city  in  which  he  lives  has  yet  to  find  one  defender  in  all  the 
region  of  that  North  from  complicity  with  the  equally  dastardly 
crime  of  the  19th  of  April.  (Applause.)  Great  masses  of  men, 
when  their  passions  are  aroused,  and  when  the  judgment  is  asleep, 
when  great  events  are  transpiring,  forget  the  rules  of  justice  and 
of  discrimination,  and  one  portion  of  the  country  is  just  as  liberal 
and  just  as  illiberal  as  the  other  under  analogous  circumstances. 
I  have  defended  my  fellow-citizens  of  the  North.  I  can  venture 
now  to  defend  my  fellow-citizens  of  Maryland,  and  demand  to  be 
heard  elsewhere  than  here.  (Applause.) 

Is  Maryland,  then,  disloyal?  Has  she  ever,  for  a  moment,  hes 
itated  even  ?  It  is  more  than  can  be  said  for  any  other  State  south 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  but  Delaware.  Have  the  people  of 
Maryland  ever  hesitated  as  to  the  side  they  should  take  in  this 
great  struggle?  ("No,  no.")  Did  she  hesitate  when  the  commis 
sioners  from  Alabama  and  from  Mississippi  sought  to  associate  her 
to  the  plotting  of  their  treason  ?  Did  she  hesitate  when  her  gov 
ernor  resolutely,  for  three  decisive  months,  refused  to  convene  her 
traitorous  Legislature  (applause),  lest  they  might  plunge  her  into 
the  vortex  of  rebellion  ?  Did  she  ever  hesitate  when  cunning  pol 
iticians  pestered  him  with  their  importunities,  when  committees 
swarmed  from  every  disloyal  quarter  of  the  State,  when  men  of 
the  first  position  sought  him  and  attempted  to  browbeat  him  in 
his  mansion?  Did  she  swerve  when  they,  failing  to  compel  him 
to  call  the  Legislature,  attempted  the  vain  formality  of  a  mock 
vote  throughout  the  State  to  call  a  sovereign  Convention  by  the 
spontaneous  voice  of  the  traitors  of  Maryland  ?  Did  they  hesitate 
when  in  almost  every  county,  even  in  those  counties  which  were 
strongly  secession,  at  the  election  for  that  Convention,  the  disloyal 


230  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

candidates  were  either  defeated  or  got  votes  so  insignificant  as  to 
create  nothing  but  disgust  and  laughter  throughout  the  State? 
Did  they  hesitate  when  that  wretched  remnant  of  a  Convention 
met  here,  amid  the  jeers  and  the  scoffs  of  the  people  of  Baltimore, 
at  the  Maryland  Institute — to  do  nothing  and  go  home?  What  was 
it  that  enabled  the  governor  to  resist  the  pressing  applications  for 
the  convocation  of  the  Legislature  ?  Are  we  to  suppose  that  he 
had  courage  and  resolution  to  face  down  and  overbear  the  will  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  Maryland  ?  Or  was  it  not  be 
cause,  knowing  the  people  who  had  elected  him,  their  temper  and 
their  purposes,  he  felt  that,  however  severe  the  pressure  might  be 
on  him,  where  one  person  sought  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature, 
there  were  thousands  who  stood  by  him  in  his  refusal  to  convoke 
them  ?  (Applause.) 

Gentlemen,  if  the  country  will  only  go  back  to  that  critical  pe 
riod,  the  period  of  the  opening  of  the  electoral  votes  in  the  House 
of  ^Representatives  in  February,  and  the  inauguration  of  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  4th  of  March,  they  who  know  most  about  that  period 
will  know  best  that  the  destiny  of  the  capital  of  the  United  States 
lay  in  the  hollow  of  the  hand  of  Maryland  ?  And  had  Maryland 
been  then  as  people  now  presumptuously  assert  that  she  is,  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  might  have  taken  the  oath  before  a  magistrate  in  the 
corner  of  some  magistrate's  office  in  Pennsylvania,  but  he  would 
not  have  been  then  inaugurated  where  his  predecessors  were  in 
augurated,  in  the  august  presence  of  the  Capitol  of  the  country. 
I  pray  gentlemen  to  reflect,  when  they  think  of  subsequent  events, 
that  if  disloyalty  had  lain  as  a  cankering  worm  at  the  heart  of 
Maryland,  then  was  her  time.  She  could  have  made  something 
by  being  false  then.  She  could  have  presented  herself  before  her 
Southern  sisters  dowering  them  with  the  capital  of  the  country ; 
and  there  was  no  power  that  could  have  prevented  that  gift,  how 
ever  the  returning  tide  of  events  might  have  shown  it  to  be  as  un 
wise  as  it  was  treacherous. 

Then,  fellow-citizens,  what  next?  The  bombardment  of  Fort 
Sumter,  the  uprising  of  the  North,  the  call  for  troops  which  Ma 
ry  landers  stood  ready  to  respond  to  (applause),  when  their  ardor 
was  damped  by  the  proclamation  of  the  governor,  and  the  disloyal 
mayor  of  Baltimore — not  the  disloyal  governor,  but  the  governor 
and  the  disloyal  mayor  of  Baltimore  ("  that  is  it") — informing  the 
people  that  no  troops  should  be  sent  out  of  the  State  of  Maryland 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  231 

for  any  other  purpose  than  the  defense  of  the  capital.  That  was 
the  equivalent  of  telling  the  traitors  of  Maryland  that  the  loyal 
men  of  Maryland  were  afraid  to  do  their  duty,  and  they  acted 
upon  it  instantly.  That  proclamation  appeared  upon  the  18th  of 
April,  and  on  the  very  evening  of  that  day  was  held  the  meeting 
at  which  Parkin  Scott,  and  Mr.  Carr,  and  Mr.  Burns,  and  other  men 
of  that  stamp,  prepared  the  hearts  of  the  mob  for  the  19th  of  April. 
("  True.")  And  then,  gentlemen,  came  that  eternal  stain  upon  the 
memory  of  those  engaged  in  it — not  a  stain  upon  the  memory  of 
Baltimore — not  a  stain  upon  the  memory  of  her  loyal  governor — 
not  a  stain  upon  the  memory  of  her  disarmed  loyal  citizens — a 
stain  upon  those  who  vilely  and  perfidiously  perverted  the  trust 
given  to  them  by  the  people  of  Maryland  for  the  preservation  of 
the  peace  of  this  city  into  an  instrument  of  revolution,  treacher 
ously  begun,  treacherously  carried  on,  until  it  fell  before  the  scorn 
and  wrath  of  the  people  of  Maryland. 

Then,  gentlemen,  the  governor,  with  the  commissions  already 
signed  lying  upon  his  table,  with  the  officers  standing  around  him 
waiting  to  receive  their  commissions — the  governor,  suddenly 
smitten  by  an  inexplicable  terror,  forgetting  that  the  majority  of 
the  people  of  Baltimore  were  loyal  and  were  around  him,  and,  if 
summoned,  could  support  and  would  support  him ;  forgetting  that 
on  Federal  Hill  the  very  night  before,  even  after  his  damaging 
proclamation  of  the  18th,  when  some  traitors  attempted  to  raise  a 
secession  flag  there,  the  loyal  working-men  pulled  it  down  and 
tore  it  to  tatters  (great  applause) ;  forgetting  that  these  men  were 
within  five  minutes'  walk  of  where  he  sat,  and  that  their  breasts 
were  such  a  protection  as  all  the  secessionists  of  Baltimore  could 
not  have  marched  over  to  assail  him  ;  forgetting  that  the  voice  of 
authority  can  paralyze  in  its  incipient  stages  civil  outbreak ;  for 
getting  the  great  example  of  which  history  gives  us  so  m any 
more  especially  forgetting  the  great  example  of  Cardinal  Eiche- 
lieu,  when  the  enemy  was  almost  at  the  gates  of  Paris,  and  the 
populace  of  Paris  thought  it  was  there  througli  his  neglect  and 
were  calling  for  his  blood,  the  old  cardinal,  unarmed  and  without 
guards,  went  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  in  the  midst  of  the  excited  and 
infuriated  multitude,  and  besought  them  to  come  to  his  aid  and 
not  to  his  overthrow,  and  every  rebellious  arm  sank  before  his 
patriotic  appeal — forgetting  great  examples  like  these,  the  govern 
or,  failing  to  rise  to  the  height  of  the  occasion,  went  to  the  Hotel 


232  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

de  Ville,  and  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  his  enemies,  and  be 
came  from  that  time  but  their  instrument,  graced  by  his  presence 
their  disloyal  and  degrading  meeting,  stood  in  their  midst  while 
they  uttered  disloyal  sentiments,  uttered  no  word  of  disapproba 
tion  when  they,  the  mayor  at  their  head,  falsified  events  that  had 
occurred  under  their  own  eyes  that  day,  and  allowed  them  to  treat 
as  an  assault  on  the  people  of  Baltimore  the  act  of  self-defense  of 
our  fellow-citizens  of  Massachusetts  against  the  traitorous  assassins 
that  assailed  them  without  warning  as  they  marched  peacefully  on 
their  way  for  the  defense  of  the  Capitol.  Then  came  the  calling 
out  of  the  military,  two  thirds  of  them  secessionists,  under  officers 
many  of  whom  were  known  then  to  be  traitors,  and  who  have 
since  signalized  their  treachery  by  leaving  Maryland,  in  pursuit 
of  military  service  in  the  Confederate  States.  Then  it  was  that 
here  in  Baltimore  even  strong  men's  hearts  failed  them  for  fear. 
Then  it  was  that  we  saw  the  Chief  of  Police,  and  the  Commission 
ers  of  Police,  and  Trimble,  the  "general  commanding"  (derisive 
laughter),  and  his  aids  innumerable,  and  his  adjutant  general 
(continued  laughter),  disporting  themselves  through  the  streets  in 
gaudy  colors,  arraying  armed  men  in  Monument  Square,  first  their 
trained  volunteers,  and  then  the  rabble  and  the  mob  not  to  do 
their  behests,  and  then  arresting  the  commerce  of  the  port,  and 
then  seizing  upon  the  military  stores  of  the  United  States,  and 
then  forbidding  the  display  of  the  national  flag,  and  then  arresting 
people  for  spies,  cutting  off  the  transit  of  troops  to  the  Capitol  by 
breaking  up  the  railway  communications,  arming  steamers  to  ply 
in  the  port  to  arrest  the  free  transit  of  Maryland  commerce — all 
these  things  done  by  the  Chief  of  Police  and  the  members  of  the  police 
of  Baltimore  and  the  organized  mob — the  loyal  men  informed  that 
their  lives  were  not  safe — men  insolently  warned  to  leave  the  city 
if  they  would  be  safe — men  thinking  that  it  was  "  too  good  news 
to  be  true"  that  the  Virginians  were  coming  down  to  aid  us ;  com 
munication  opened,  formal  embassies  sent  up  to  Harper's  Ferry 
to  invite  John  Letcher's  6000  men  to  come  down  and  help  the 
Marylanders  to  be  free  (laughter),  and  empty  cars  mysteriously 
gliding,  in  spite  of  the  President,  for  a  whole  day  toward  Harper's 
Ferry  —  a  peace-offering  to  our  Southern  brethren  ("  that's  so") 
which  might  prevent  their  destroying  the  road  and  could  not  em 
barrass  their  march  to  Baltimore — the  correspondence  opened  with 
John  Letcher  for  muskets  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  our  "loyal 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  233 

citizens" — quarreling  between  General  Steuart  and  certain  mem 
bers  of  the  Police  Board  and  Mr.  Trimble  for  the  possession  of 
the  precious  deposit  of  2000  arms  sent  down  here  from  Harper's 
Ferry  to  keep  the  peace — Bradley  Johnson,  with  an  "  invincible 
legion"  of  thirty  men,  rushing  to  defend  Baltimore  against  "  the 
Northern  hordes"  (laughter) — Marshal  Kane  making  the  mount 
ains -and  the  valleys  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  hideous  with  his 
cry  for  help,  which  did  not  come  (great  laughter) — the  Yansville 
Rangers  scattered  all  along  the  way,  forty  men  full  (renewed 
laughter),  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  to  guard  the  road— 
"loyal  men"  from  Harford  County,  in  equally  overwhelming 
masses,  rushing  in  to  defend  Baltimore  against  "Lincoln's  hire 
lings"  (laughter) — all  these  things  are  represented  by  the  intelli 
gent  Northern  press  as  the  doings  of  the  people  of  Maryland ! 

And  on  Wednesday  an  election  was  called  (great  laughter),  and 
it  was  supposed  that  the  unanimous  voice  of  "an  oppressed  peo 
ple"  would  signalize  this  day  of  their  deliverance. 

*  -x-  •»  v  #  *  *  -K 

Had  they  not  taken  every  possible  pains  to  "obliterate  all  past 
differences"  by  the  organizing  of  3000  sharp  bayonets  to  argue 
with  the  refractory  ?  Was  there  not,  therefore,  every  reason  to 
suppose  that  there  would  be  entire  unanimity ;  nay,  that  these 
people,  trodden  down  to  the  earth,  trembling  before  the  advent 
of  "fresh  hordes,"  wishing  to  place  the  mild  and  peaceful  gov 
ernment  of  Jefferson  Davis  between  their  threatened  bosoms  and 
the  Northern  onslaught,  would  rush  as  one  man  to  elect  these 
gentlemen,  the  symbols  of  Southern  sympathy,  as  their  protectors 
in  the  day  of  their  distress?  The  morning  of  election  came,  and 
one  third  of  the  people  of  Baltimore,  under  the  influence  of  pres 
sure,  and  persuasion,  and  delusion,  and  a  little  coercion  (laughter), 
signified  at  an  illegal  election  that  they  thought  -  -  and  his 
colleagues  fit  associates  for  the  rest  of  the  majority  of  the  House 
of  Delegates.  (Laughter.) 

On  Thursday  morning,  when  men  woke  and  walked  down  the 
streets,  they  found  that  a  revolution  had  occurred,  although  they 
did  not  know  it.  Gone  was  the  elastic  step,  gone  was  the  uplifted 
eye  of  insolence,  gone  was  the  jeering  scoff  with  which  Secession 
ist  met  Union  man,  gone  was  the  half  menace  with  which  loyal 
men  were  met,  gone  was  the  nod  of  fate  that  told  them  that  their 
hour  was  coming.  They  fell  by  their  victory ;  they  died  of  their 


234  ADDEESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

vote ;  the  silence  of  two  thirds  of  Baltimore  stripped  the  revolu 
tionists  of  their  power,  and  consigned  them  to  ignominy.  (Ap 
plause.)  Half  the  votes  of  a  people  do  not  make  a  revolution. 
One  third  may  make  a  rebellion,  but  two  thirds  on  the  spot  can 
put  it  down  ;  and  they  felt  it.  ("  That's  so.")  Gradually  troops 
disappeared  from  Monument  Square;  gradually  the  arms  were 
placed  in  their  armories ;  gradually  there  were  fewer  and  fewer 
"orders  from  head-quarters,"  "  Trimble  commanding"  (laughter); 
gradually  the  steam-tug  which  constituted  the  navy  of  the  incipi 
ent  republic  (laughter)  ceased  to  send  forth  its  black  smoke,  and 
vessels  could  venture  to  leave  Baltimore  without  having  a  pop 
gun  fired  at  them  (laughter);  and  even  the  Union  men  that  had 
been  frightened  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that  where  they 
thought  they  were  slaves  they  were  masters,  and  from  that  day 
to  this  there  has  been  nothing  in  Baltimore  to  make  any  man 
afraid,  except  one  who  has  violated  the  laws  of  the  land. 

B—  -  J was  seen  almost  immediately  after  that  election, 

having  accomplished  the  purpose. of  his  visit,  to  return  to  Fred 
erick;  and  on  the  9th  of  May,  "the  defenders  of  Maryland,"  "the 
defenders  of  Baltimore,"  the  candidates  for  immortality  in  the 
coming  revolution,  the  men  who  were  to  fill  the  places  in  the 
niche  of  history  corresponding  to  those  filled  by  Williams  and 
Small  wood  of  the  Eevolution — those  men  had  tramped  way-worn 
and  weary  to  Frederick,  and  in  that  loyal  town  were  guarded  by 
the  police  through  the  town  on  their  way  to  Dixie's  land,  without 

any  music  accompanying.  (Laughter.)  And  B J ,  with 

his  thirty  heroes,  not  one  fallen  in  conflict  with  the  "Northern 
invaders,"  joined  them  and  marched  to  defend  Harper's  Ferry ! 

Now,  upon  the  simple  statement  of  that  series  of  facts,  is  there 
any  man  who  needs  any  thing  else  to  be  told  him  to  convince 
him  that  the  outbreak  of  April  was  a  mob  and  not  a  revolution  ; 
that  it  received  importance  from  the  fact  that  the  traitorous  au 
thorities  attempted  to  use  it  for  traitorous  purposes  ;  and  without 
the  firing  of  a  gun,  without  the  approach  of  a  Northern  soldier, 
without  the  menace  of  force,  without  the  necessity  even  of  a  count 
of  noses,  without  even  the  advent  of  an  election  in  the  State,  they 
recognized  that  their  time  was  come  and  gone ;  that  they  were 
powerless,  and  in  the  "hands  of  the  civil  authorities ;  that  they 
must  gain  immunity  by  good  behavior;  that  Maryland  was  so 
loyal  that  they  could  not  make  her  even  appear  to  be  disloyal ; 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  235 

and  the  arms  dropped  from  their  hands,  and  they  began  to  seek 
mercy  of  their  traitorous  confederates  at  Frederick  by  begging 
and  accepting  a  bill  of  indemnity  for  their  criminal  acts  ?  Look 
at  the  counties.  Was  there  any  one  of  them  that  met  to  pass 
resolutions  approving  of  what  proceeded  in  Baltimore,  or  poured 
forth  their  thousands  to  support  the  revolution  ?  If  there  was, 
let  some  one  better  versed  in  the  history  of  the  State  than  I  am 
name  it.  If  not,  how  came  the  whole  State,  being  filled  with 
traitors  (!),  to  be  silent  when  Kichmond  was  ringing  with  the  joy 
ous  acclamations  that  saluted  the  narrative  of  -  -?  How  is 
it  that  Virginia  appreciates  our  "  deliverance"  more  than  we  do 
ourselves?  How  is  it  that  we  can  find  no  tongue  to  celebrate  the 
glories  that  they  are  rejoicing  over?  Why,  gentlemen,  not  only 
was  there  no  county  that  expressed  any  such  approval,  but  even 
in  St.  Mary's,  where  there  are  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  in 
the  whole  county,  they  were  not  so  deluded  as  to  suppose  that 
they  had  Maryland  in  their  grasp ;  and  in  Cecil  on  the  23d  of 
April  the  people  met  and  passed  resolutions  such  as  Cecil  has  al 
ways  acted  upon,  professing  not  neutrality,  as  Kentuckians  did, 
not  a  desire  for  the  removal  of  "the  Northern  hordes,"  not  that 
our  soil  should  not  be  polluted  by  any  individuals  crossing  it  in 
arms,  but  declaring  their  determination  to  stand  by  and  maintain 
the  government  of  the  United  States  (applause),  branding  as  trai 
tors  the  men  who  had  attempted  to  gain  the  reputation  of  patriots, 
and  themselves  leading  off  in  the  chorus  that  swept  all  round  the 
States  in  one  unbroken  jubilee  over  the  failure  of  the  attempted 
revolution.  (Great  applause.)  And  immediately  following  were 
the  resolutions  of  Alleghany  County  consigning  to  the  halter  their 
representatives  in  the  Legislature  if  they  should  dare  to  vote  for 
an  Ordinance  of  Secession ;  and  then  followed  the  resolutions  of 
Washington  County,  just  preceding  their  great  election — itself 
held,  I  believe,  on  the  second  or  third  of  May — declaring  their  un 
alterable  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  and  their 
determination  to  abide  by  it  always,  followed  up  two  or  three 
days  afterward  by  casting  2300  out  of  the  3800  votes  of  the  coun 
ty  for  the  Union  candidate  without  opposition.  And  then  follow 
ed  the  great  meeting  in  Frederick ;  and  intermediate  here  in  our 
midst,  all  through  our  wards,  when  the  Legislature  ventured  to 
attempt  to  fix  on  us  a  military  despotism  in  the  disguise  of  a 
bill  of  public  safety,  copying  the  provisions  and  the  spirit  of 


236  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

their  infernal  police  law  for  the  city  to  fix  the  yoke  on  the  peo 
ple  of  the  State,  as  they  fixed  that  on  the  neck  of  the  people 
of  this  city,  our  people  quietly  met  in  their  wards  and  passed 
their  resolutions,  which  were  followed  up  in  so  many  of  the  coun 
ties  of  the  State  that  even  the  Legislature  let  drop  their  infernal 
machine,  and  did  not  venture  to  put  it  to  a  vote.  (Applause.) 

And  where  were  we,  fellow-citizens,  all  this  time,  for  it  was 
dropped  on  the  second  or  third  of  May?  In  whose  power  was 
the  capital  of  the  United  States  at  that  moment,  on  the  hypothe 
sis  of  the  disloyalty  of  Maryland  ?  There  were  six  hundred  reg 
ulars  there  on  the  18th  of  April ;  there  were  one  thousand  Penn- 
sylvanians,  wholly  without  drilling  and  ununiformed ;  and  that 
constituted  the  protection  of  the  capital  of  the  United  States  on 
the  19th  of  April.  On  that  day  one  Massachusetts  regiment 
marched  through,  its  last  company  only  having  been  assailed. 
From  that  day  until  the  26th  of  April  there  were  no  more  troops 
in  Washington  than  I  have  enumerated.  Up  to  the  second  of 
May  they  could  count  only  about  6000  troops  for  the  defense  of 
the  capital,  and  there  were  at  that  time  6000  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
and  cars  there  ready  to  bring  them  down,  and  3000  men  armed  in 
the  city  of  Baltimore. 

Suppose  the  State  of  Maryland  had  been,  as  men  now  impu 
dently  say  she  is,  disloyal,  I  ask  in  whose  power  was  the  capital 
of  the  United  States  ?  On  that  supposition,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  was  ours — ours  by  a  march  of  forty  miles — ours  as  long  as 
we  could  hold  it,  it  may  be  as  long  as  the  Southern  Confederates 
have  held  -Bull  Eun.  And  here,  gentlemen,  I  desire  to  say  that 
it  is  to  the  fault  of  the  Confederates  themselves,  the  remarkable 
lack  of  that  quality  which  Danton  said  was  the  essence  of  re  volu 
tion,  audacity,  audacity,  AUDACITY — it  is  to  their  failure  in  that 
first  and  indispensable  quality  of  revolutionary  leaders,  it  is  to 
the  absence  of  that  quality  that  we  now  owe  (be  Maryland  loyal 
or  disloyal)  the  possession  of  the  capital  of  the  United  States.  It 
was  not  saved  by  the  promptness  of  Northern  volunteers ;  it  was 
not  saved  by  the  forecast  of  the  administration,  that  during  its 
first  month  labored  under  the  delusion  that  peace  and  not  war 
was  before  it ;  it  was  not  by  the  forecast  of  that  wretched  old 
dotard  Buchanan  (hisses),  who  now  mumbles  about  energy  and 
activity  from  his  home  at  Wheatland  ;  it  was  neither  one  nor  the 
other ;  but  it  was  because  revolutionists  had  undertaken  the  work, 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  237 

without  having  the  quality  of  revolutionists,  that  we  still  hold  it, 
and  that  the  glorious  emblem  of  the  republic  floats  from  its  dome. 
(Applause.)  Baltimore,  so  the  myth  goes  by  timid  creatures  in 
our  city,  who  whisper  to  people  in  Washington  and  tell  their  fears 
for  facts,  and  begrime  the  reputation  of  their  native  city,  or  spread 
in  still  more  dangerous  form  their  fancies  through  the  columns 
of  the  Northern  press  to  poison  the  minds  of  our  fellow-citizens 
against  us — these  people  would  fain  repeat  that  here  is  the  very 
gate  of  hell ;  that  its  seething  and  boiling  fire  bubbles  under  our 
feet  perpetually,  and  that  nothing  keeps  it  down  excepting  their 
sleepless  vigilance — fit  guardians  for  such  a  post!  and  "Lincoln's 
myrmidons."  (Great  laughter.)  Where  were  these  gentlemen 
that  were  to  keep  the  peace  in  Baltimore  City  during  that  awful 
period  from  the  19th  of  April  to  the  14th  of  May? — time  enough 
in  the  city  of  Paris,  where  revolutionists  understand  their  work, 
to  have  gone  through  all  the  phases  of  a  revolution,  installed  a 
new  power,  tried  and  beheaded  their  antagonists,  and  forgotten 
the  thing  as  an  old  event.  It  was  not  until  the  14th  of  May  that 
General  Butler  marched  into  this  "disloyal"  city,  teeming,  as  we 
are  now  taught  to  believe,  with  raging  revolutionists,  requiring 
10,000  men  more — so  say  some  men  of  the  last  generation — to 
keep  them  down.  General  Butler  marched  one  morning  into  the 
southern  part  of  Baltimore,  marched  up  to  Federal  Hill,  com 
fortably  encamped  his  men  in  the  rain,  issued  a  proclamation,  in 
which  he  (understanding  Baltimore  better  than  those  in  it  who 
delight  to  malign  it)  appealed  to  and  trusted  to  the  loyal  men  of 
Baltimore,  having  come,  as  he  said,  with  little  more  than  a  bodj-- 
guard — less  than  1000  men  in  a  hostile  city  of  230,000  inhabit 
ants.  That  was  the  first  appearance  of  troops  here.  Now  tell 
me  why  (if  there  were  the  disloyal  elements  to  the  extent  that  is 
supposed),  during  all  that  period,  nothing  had  been  done.  Why 
was  there  no  array  to  resist  his  entrance?  Why  did  it  have  no 
other  effect  excepting  that  Union  men  walked  down  the  street  and 
said,  "Well,  we  are  afraid  it  will  have  the  effect  of  changing  some 
of  our  weak-kneed  brethren."  That  was  the  only  doubt  express 
ed  about  it,  except  that  one  despairing  individual  thought  that 
the  hill  being  in  the  possession  of  the  troops  of  the  United  States 
would  frighten  all  the  market-women  away,  and  we  should  have 
no  lettuce  for  some  time.  (Laughter.) 

How  did  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  understand  the  position 


238  ADDKESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

of  affairs  in  the  state  ?  They  had  prayed  and  besought  to  be  re 
called  again  into  existence.  They  had  died  a  natural  death  in 
March  the  year  previous,  having  signalized  their  short  power  by 
some  events  which  were  to  form  a  remarkable  antithesis  to  events 
to  follow  them.  They  had  passed  almost  unanimously  a  resolu 
tion  declaring  that  I,  in  voting  Mr.  Pennington  into  the  speaker's 
chair  of  the  national  House  of  Representatives,  in  order  to  pre 
vent  the  then  incipient  revolution,  did  not  represent  the  people 
of  Maryland.  They  had  ejected  the  respectable  members  from 
the  city  of  Baltimore  in  the  last  hour  of  their  session,  in  order  that 
they  might  make  room  for  those  who  were  to  follow  them,  and 
be  more  fit  companions  for  the  majority.  They  had  previously 
passed  a  Police  Law,  in  which  they  had  been  careful  to  provide 
that  "  no  Black  Eepublican,  or  approver  or  indorser  of  the  Help 
er  book,"  should  ever  be  a  policeman  under  that  law  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore.  (Laughter.)  And  such  is  the  poetical  justice  of 
time  and  Providence,  that  within  a  few  months  past  we  have  seen 
a  man  set  over  the  police  of  Baltimore  by  a  "Black  Republican" 
general,  and  !N".  P.  Banks's  name  signed  to  an  order  to  enforce  the 
law ;  and  some  of  the  gentlemen  who  passed  that  law  are  now 
appreciating  that,  although  a  Black  Republican  could  not  be  a 
policeman  under  their  law,  he  might  be  a  policeman  over  its  au 
thors  and  commissioners.  (Great  laughter.) 

Thus  ends  the  first  act  of  the  Maryland  Assembly — more 
wretched  in  its  character,  more  ignorant,  more  unfit  for  its  po 
sition,  less  representing  the  dignity  and  the  intelligence  of  the 
State  of  Maryland,  more  begrimed  by  filthy  lucre  than  any  Leg 
islature  within  my  memory.  Men  supposed  that  it  had  been  car 
ried  to  its  burial  and  buried  out  of  our  sight  forever,  and  if  not 
out  of  our  memory,  at  least  out  of  our  grateful  recollection ;  and, 
doubtless,  one  great  element  in  the  pertinacity  with  which  the 
governor  refused  to  recall  the  Assembly  was  his  distinct  remem 
brance  of  their  unfitness  for  their  duty,  and  his  unwillingness  that 
the  State  should  be  degraded  by  their  again  assembling.  (Ap 
plause.)  But  in  an  evil  hour  he  assembled  them.  For  what? 
According  to  the  unanimous  avowal  of  those  who  demanded  it, 
to  take  the  sense  of  the  people  of  Maryland  as  to  whether  they 
wished  to  remain  in  the  Union  or  to  go  out  of  it.  They  met, 
and  an  elaborate  report  was  prepared  and  delivered  before  that 
bod}r,  making  great  complaints  of  divers  acts  of  illegality  and  op- 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  239 

pression  that  bad  been  perpetrated  within  the  territory  of  Mary 
land  by  President  Lincoln,  but  ultimately  coming  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  they  were  unanimously  opposed  to  the  assembling  of  a 
Convention  at  that  time. 

"At  the  time  when  the  Legislature  was  called  together,"  says 
this  singular  document,  "there  was  certainly  but  little  difference 
of  opinion  among  its  members  of  all  parties  as  to  the  propriety 
of  speedily  adopting  measures  to  secure  the  objects  referred  to. 
Since  that  time,  the  rapid  and  extraordinary  development  of 
events,  and  of  the  warlike  purposes  of  the  administration,  the  con 
centration  of  large  bodies  of  troops  in  our  midst  and  upon  our 
borders,  and  the  actual  and  threatened  military  occupation  of  the 
State,  have  naturally  enough  produced  great  changes  of  opinion 
and  feeling  among  our  citizens."  (Laughter.)  "  They  have  no 
hesitation  in  expressing  their  belief  now  that  there  is  almost 
unanimous  feeling  in  the  State  against  calling  a  Convention  at 
the  present  time."  (Laughter.)  Since  when  ?  It  goes  on  to  as 
sign  the  reasons.  Now  judge: 

"To  the  committee,  the  single  fact  of  the  military  occupation 
of  our  soil  by  the  Northern  troops  in  the  service  of  the  govern 
ment,  against  the  wishes  of  our  people  and  the  solemn  protest  of 
the  State  executive,  is  a  sufficient  and  conclusive  reason  for  post 
poning  the  subject  to  a  period  when  the  federal  ban  shall  be  no 
longer  upon  us." 

It  goes  on  to  say :  "  The  Constitution  is  silenced  by  the  bayo 
nets  which  surround  us,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  for  us  to  fancy 
ourselves  beneath  its  a)gis.  It  would  be  criminal  as  well  as  fool 
ish  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  we  will  not  be  permitted  to 
organize  and  arm  our  citizens,  let  our  rights  and  Constitution  be 
what  they  may." 

That  is  to  say,  gentlemen,  when  there  were  not  troops  enough 
in  Washington  to  defend  it ;  when  there  were  none  to  be  spared 
from  Washington,  when  there  was  not  a  single  soldier  within  the 
limits  of  Baltimore,  when  there  were  not  three  or  four  thousand 
upon  the  soil  of  Maryland  all  told,  these  patriots,  who  tell  us  that 
the  Constitution  is  silenced,  that  our  rights  are  trampled  down, 
that  we  ar'e  oppressed,  think  that  these  are  the  very  reasons  why 
they  should  not  appeal  to  the  people  of  Maryland  for  their  own 
protection !  They  may  be  the  fit  representatives  of  what  is  called 
secession ;  they  certainly  are  the  representatives  of  that  prudence 


240  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

which  Maryland  secessionists  have  always  substituted  for  audaci 
ty  ;  who  will  neither  appeal  to  arms  or  the  ballot-box  against  op 
pression  unless  the  oppressor  first  stays  his  hand ;  but  these  men 
are  not  the  representatives  of  the  loyal  and  free  men  of  Maryland. 
If  affairs  were  as  they  represent  them,  that  was  the  time  to  appeal 
to  the  people  of  Maryland.  It  matters  not  whence  oppression 
comes,  it  matters  not  in  what  shape  it  be  presented,  it  matters  not 
how  overwhelming  may  be  its  force,  when  oppression  shall  un 
sheathe  the  sword,  I  mistake  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  people 
of  Maryland  if  they  would  stop  any  more  than  the  men  of  Lex 
ington  and  Concord  stopped  to  count  their  antagonists  in  1775. 
(Applause.)  I  suppose  that  it  was  not  the  presence  of  the  mil 
itary  which  overawed  the  Legislature  of  Maryland ;  it  was  that 
they,  like  the  Police  Commissioners,  like  Marshal  Kane,  and  like 
it  Trimble  commanding"  (laughter),  and  like  all  his  supporters 
and  followers,  adjutants  and  aids,  had  all  found  that,  while  the 
people  of  Maryland  were  almost  unanimously  opposed  to  calling 
a  Convention,  that  unanimity  resolved  itself  into  these  elements 
— a  small  minority  of  the  people  wanting  the  majority  to  vote 
with  them,  but  knowing  they  would  not,  and  therefore  not  want 
ing  a  Convention  called  which  would  reveal  irrefutably  their  in 
significance  of  numbers,  and  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
people  of  Maryland,  who  did  not  want  to  be  pestered  with  a  vote 
to  put  down  such  wretched  revolutionists.  (Applause.)  Now,  am 
I  right,  or  am  I  wrong  in  my  estimate  of  the  causes  ?  ("  Eight.") 
That  was  in  May. 

On  the  13th  of  June  a  congressional  election  was  held,  to  which 
both  the  mayor  and  the  governor  had  referred  the  people  as  a  fit 
opportunity  to  express  their  devotion  to,  or  their  abhorrence  of, 
the  government;  and  how  did  they  express  it?  I  have  already 
told  you  that  the  Washington  County  men  voted  4000  out  of 
5000  votes  for  their  member  of  Assembly,  and  that  Cecil  County 
followed  up  her  resolution  at  a  special  election  by  voting  three 
fourths  of  her  vote  in  favor  it,  and  that  is  an  index  of  what  the 
State  did.  In  the  great  upper  district  there  was  no  opposition. 
In  Mr.  "Webster's  district  there  was  no  opposition.  In  the  district 
now  represented  by  Mr.  Crisfield  there  was  a  candidate  for  peace, 
who  attempted  to  oppose  him.  A  peace  man  opposed  Mr.  Leary. 
A  Union  man  with  Southern  sympathies  claimed  and  received  the 
suffrages  of  the  4th  district.  There  was  but  one  avowed  seces- 


ON  THE  PRESENT*  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  2-il 

sionist  throughout  the  State  of  Maryland  that  ventured  to  ask  a 
vote,  and  that  was  in  Mr.  Calvert's  district,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  many  years  one  not  a  Democrat  carried  the  district.  (Ap 
plause.)  How  did  the  voting  foot  up  throughout  the  whole  State? 
If  you  give  to  the  secessionists  every  vote  not  cast,  making  no 
allowance  for  lukewarm  men,  no  allowance  for  the  doubtful,  hesi 
tating,  floating  vote  that  had  not  made  up  its  mind  whether  it 
would  be  for  or  against  the  government,  the  conditional  men,  all 
the  people  who  are  on  this  side  to-day  and  on  that  side  to-mor 
row,  or  all  the  time  on  both  sides  (laughter),  separating  all  those 
men  and  giving  them  to  the  secession  side  of  the  question,  the  Un 
ion  men  of  Maryland  at  that  election,  with  no  opposition  in  two 
of  the  districts,  and  no  avowed  opposition  upon  secession  grounds 
any  where  excepting  in  one  of  the  districts,  cast  a  great  majority 
of  the  whole  vote  of  the  State.  (Great  applause.)  And,  gentle 
men,  for  whom  ?  Not  fbr  men  who  are  pledged  to  shun  responsi 
bilities,  to  avoid  votes,  to  let  the  government  bleed  to  death  if 
need  be,  to  talk  about  neutrality  in  Maryland,  to  join  the  govern 
or  in  opposing  the  transit  of  Northern  troops,  but  men  pledged  be 
fore  their  constituents,  pledged  before  the  Conventions  that  nom 
inated  them,  pledged  in  every  way  that  can  bind  honorable  men 
to  vote  every  man  that  the  government  should  demand,  and  any 
amount  of  money  that  the  government  should  say  was  needed — 
not  for  the  purpose  of  making  peace,  not  for  the  purpose  of  hold 
ing  out  the  olive-branch,  not  for  the  purpose  of  making  treaties 
with  traitors,  but  to  disperse  them  by  arms.  (Tremendous  cheer 
ing.) 

What  followed  ?  The  arrest  of  Kane.  (A  voice :  "They  ought 
to  hang  him."  Cheers.)  They  left  him  in  power  till  after  the 
election.  Secessionists  who  were  so  fond  of  the  truth  can  not 
say  that  they  were  frightened  and  coerced  in  the  election  !  It 
was  wise  to  do  so.  They  fortunately,  have  no  excuse  of  that 
kind,  because  at  the  time  of  the  election  there  were  soldiers  at 
Baltimore  and  soldiers  nowhere  else,  and  it  was  only  in  Baltimore 
that  they  were  partially  successful.  But,  after  that  was  taken  out 
of  their  mouths,  Kane  was  arrested ;  and  that  was  one  great  out 
rage  (laughter) ;  and  then  the  loyal  commissioners,  who  protested 
their  loyalty,  and  supposed  that  other  people  had  memories  as 
short  as  their  own,  and  had  forgotten  their  acts  of  war  from  the 
19th  to  the  24th  of  April — these  gentlemen  in  the  interest  of 

Q 


242  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

"Peace  and  Order,"  when  Governor  Banks,  with  wise  discrimina 
tion,  had  stopped  at  arresting  one  mischievous  man  in  the  hope 
that  other  mischievous  men,  taking  warning,  would  be  peaceable 
—they  in  the  interest  of  peace  and  order,  or  possibly  hoping  that 
a  great  city  swarming  with  bad  men,  in  the  period  of  a  great 
revolution,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  revolutionary  blood  floating 
through  the  Irish  of  the  8th  ward  (laughter) — these  stalwart  re 
formers,  and  friends  of  peace  and  good  government,  supposing  that 
all  these  elements  with  no  police  would  be  much  more  quiet  than 
when  they  were  aggravated  into  resistance  by  a  police  on  their 
side — they  told  their  policemen  that  they  had  no  farther  use  for 
them  at  that  time ;  they  should  continue  to  draw  their  pay,  but 
they  were  not  expected  to  do  any  duty.  (Laughter.)  General 
Banks,  being  a  practical  man,  interpreted  "  no  duty"  to  be  any 
duty  that  they  might  see  fit  to  do ;  and  as  they  had  some  train 
ing  in  military  matters,  and  had  shown  themselves  pretty  good 
instruments  to  begin  a  revolution,  though  their  masters  did  not 
prove  so  good  leaders  in  it  after  it  was  started,  came  to  the  very 
natural  conclusion  that  possibly  a  vagrant  police  with  nothing  to 
do,  with  masters  equally  idle,  might  find  something  to  do ;  and 
he  took  care  of  the  masters,  and  that  was  another  great  and  un 
speakable  "outrage."  (Laughter.)  A  howl  of  indignation  arose 
to  the  pitying  heavens  against  the  u  outrage"  of  arresting  men 
who  only  opened  the  door  to  civil  discord  in  a  city  of  250,000  in 
habitants  !  Every  principle  of  American  liberty  was  appealed  to 
to  insure  traitors  liberty  for  mischief;  and  they  wrote  their  ap 
peal  to  the  Legislature,  and  their  appeal  to  the  Legislature  found 
a  fitting  advocate  in  the  gentleman  whose  name  I  have  had  oc 
casion  so  often  to  refer  to.  A  long,  elaborate,  insidious,  and  dis 
ingenuous  report  was  after  a  while  brought  forward,  in  which  all 
the  history  of  the  government  was  read  backward ;  all  the  arts 
of  special  pleading  were  applied  to  the  misconstruction  of  the 
Constitution ;  rash  assertions  as  to  the  history  of  the  Convention 
were  strewn  all  through  it ;  and  we  were  called  upon  to  believe 
that  George  Washington  had  framed  and  recommended  the  adop 
tion  of  a  Constitution  which  would  be  very  good  if  every  body 
would  obey  it,  but  would  be  very  worthless  if  any  body  should 
say  he  did  not  wish  to  obey  it ;  and  that  George  Washington,  and 
the  other  wise  men  who  surrounded  him  in  the  Convention,  hav 
ing  provided  on  the  face  of  the  Convention  for  the  suppression 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  243 

of  insurrection,  and  declared  that  every  law  of  a  State  should  be 
in  subordination  to  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  Congress  made  in  pursuance  of  it,  had  yet  left- 
open  this  great,  wide  passage-way  for  .all  the  evils  that  they  had 
attempted  to  exclude,  by  excepting  from  that  subordination  that 
law  which  should  annul  the  whole  Constitution  ;  that  case  in 
which  a  faction  should  get  possession  of  the  authorities  of  a  State, 
should  put  their  treason  in  the  shape  of  law,  array  armies  for  its 
defense,  and  defy  the  government,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
author  of  that  report  is  a  respectable  lawyer  within  a  narrow 
sphere,  and  I  think  that  those  who  read  the  report  will  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  has,  like  a  wise  lawyer,  confined  his  studies 
to  his  department.  (Laughter.) 

That  Legislature  raised  the  awful  question  as  to  whether  the 
government  of  the  United  States  could  arrest  men  in  arms  against 
its  authority !  (Laughter.)  They  did  not  venture  to  reorganize 
the  militia  of  the  State.  They  found  that  it  was  dangerous.  They 
could  pass  laws  of  indemnity  for  men  who  had  been  guilty  of 
treason,  as  if  an  act  of  indemnity  by  the  State  of  Maryland  would 
bar  an  indictment  in  the  United  States  Court ;  but  that  was  out 
of  their  line  of  practice.  (Laughter.)  They  thought  they  could 
debauch  the  minds  of  the  people,  a  law-abiding  and  law-loving 
people,  habituated  to  see  the  law  enforced  only  through  the  tri 
bunals,  by  the  sheriff,  the  judgment  of  the  court,  the  constable — 
unaccustomed  to  the  short  and  sharp  methods  of  military  sup 
pression  equally  constitutional  against  armed  insurrection.  They 
seized  every  opportunity  to  mislead  the  people  of  Maryland  into 
the  supposition  that  their  rights  were  violated  whenever  the  para 
mount  law  of  the  safety  of  the  republic,  embodied  in  that  clause  of 
the  Constitution  which  authorizes  Congress  to  call  forth  the  militia 
to  suppress  insurrection,  was  required  to  be  acted  upon  in  lieu  of 
the  ordinary  methods  of  enforcing  the  law  through  the  judicial 
tribunals ;  and  they  attempted  to  delude  and  excite  the  people  of 
Maryland  by  representing  that  as  a  violation  of  the  fundamental 
law.  The  people  of  Maryland  were  not  so  ignorant  as  the  major 
ity  of  the  Legislature,  and  understood  the  construction  of  their 
fathers  better  than  the  gentlemen  of  the  secession  school.  They 
understood  that  just  as-  the  Legislature  can  take  land  against  the 
will  of  the  owner  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  railway  or  other 
public  improvement,  so  the  United  States  can  seize  railways  when 


24:4  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

necessary  for  the  transportation  of  troops,  so  they  can  occupy  sites 
for  fortifications,  and  when  men  are  in  arms  against  the  govern 
ment,  they  can  arrest  them  without  process,  just  as  when  they  see 
them  in  serried  ranks  opposed  to  them  in  the  open  field  they  can 
shoot  them  down  without  having  inquired  by  a  jury  whether  they 
be  traitors  or  a  loyal  man.  All  their  machinations  fell  harmless 
before  the  people  of  Maryland ;  and,  adjourning  from  day  to  day, 
finally  the  fatal  hour  met  the  Maryland  Legislature.  It  seemed 
likely  to  break  the  law  of  all  things  mortal  and  sit  forever,  when 
the  administration,  impelled  by  unfounded  fear  of  mischief  at  their 
hands,  silenced  their  harmless  chattering  by  taking  away  their 
heads,  and  leaving  their  tails  to  writhe. 

The  people  of  Maryland  saw  with  indifference  or  delight  their 
dispersion,  yet  wondered  at  the  importance  attached  to  them. 
On  the  policy  or  legality  of  that  measure  I  shall  at  present  say 
nothing. 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  the  history  of  secession  in  Maryland; 
it  is  the  whole  history ;  it  is  the  close  of  the  history.  (Applause.) 
It  is  going  to  let  the  election  this  fall  go  by  default  and  by  con 
fession.  It  did  not  venture  to  nominate  a  man  in  this  city  the 
other  day ;  it  will  not  press  the  election  of  its  candidate  for  gov 
ernor  in  November;  it  will  have  no  contestants  for  the  Ilouse  of 
Delegates  in  one  half  the  counties  of  the  State ;  it  will  make  no 
contest  for  the  Senate  except  in  two  or  three  counties  which  are 
doubtful,  and  there  only  for  the  purpose  of  holding  a  veto  on  the 
Union  men  in  the  Legislature,  and  it  is  that  we  are  specially  bound  / 
to  take  care  of.  But  secession  as  an  active,  dangerous,  and  agita 
ting  element,  I  say,  now  lies  writhing  in  its  last  agonies  in  Mary 
land.  (Great  applause.)  I  do  not  doubt  that  very  nearly  one 
third  of  the  people  of  the  State  are  disloyal — not  that  they  will 
take  up  arms  on  the  secession  side,  but  they  will  not  take  up  arms 
on  the  Union  side ;  they  are  disloyal.  In  my  judgment,  that  is  a 
very  large  estimate  of  the  strength  of  the  secession  faction  in  Ma 
ryland  this  day.  It  has  found  the  limits  of  its  power ;  the  nature 
of  the  beast  is  the  same,  only  it  has  been  deprived  of  its  fangs ; 
it  can  now  do  nothing  but  mumble  false  prophecies  about  the 
coming  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  pray  him  not  to  falsify  their  pre 
dictions. 

Maryland  has  been  true  in  heart  thus  far.  She  has  not  fur 
nished  her  quota  of  troops  to  put  down  the  rebellion  within  or 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  2 45 

without  Maryland.  That  is  partly  her  fault ;  chiefly  the  fault  of 
her  governor,  who  paralyzed  the  energies  of  her  citizens  when 
they  were  ready  to  respond  to  the-  first  call  of  the  government. 
But  those  charged  with  military  affairs  at  Washington  are  not  with 
out  their  share  of  responsibility ;  for  when  the  governor  refused 
to  call  forth  the  contingent  of  Maryland,  and  when  the  law  was 
pointed  out  to  them  under  which  they  could  send  their  orders  to 
any  officer  of  the  militia,  and  the  names  of  officers  holding  com 
missions  and  ready  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  government  were 
laid  before  them,  and  the  President  had  drawn  in  blank  the  order 
and  directed  it  to  be  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  it  rested  on  his 
table  unacted  on.  When  subsequently,  after  the  14th  of  May,  the 
governor  determined  conditionally  to  call  forth  the  contingent  of 
Maryland,  and  officers  went  to  Washington  and  offered  themselves 
ready  to  respond  to  the  orders  of  the  government,  the  War  De 
partment  declined  to  receive  them  first  under  the  call  for  men  for 
three  months,  and  when  General  Kenly  offered,  himself,  to  call 
forth  his  brigade  if  it  would  be  accepted  as  a  brigade  for  the  war, 
that  also  was  declined.  (Applause.)  It  was  quite  apparent  that 
the  Department  felt  small  confidence  in  the  Union  men  of  Mary 
land,  and  were  not  at  pains  to  conceal  their  indifference  touching 
their  aid.  After  that,  it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  others  would 
be  in  a  hurry  to  receive  such  a  rebuff.  These  doubts  of  our  loy 
alty  were  inspired  by  persons  apparently  who  knew  nothing  of 
Maryland  or  of  its  men ;  who  have  not  the  confidence  of  its  peo 
ple,  and  are  unknown  in  its  affairs,  and  have  constituted  them 
selves  the  chief  advisers  at  Washington  with  reference  to  Mary 
land  affairs.  These  things  are  undoubtedly  deplorable.  We  suffer 
— our  reputation  suffers  by  the  conduct  of  the  administration  to 
ward  the  State  throughout  the  whole  country  at  this  time.  It  is 
our  misfortune  to  have  such  citizens ;  it  is  the  fault  of  the  govern 
ment  to  listen  to  their  counsels.  (Great  applause.) 

We  have  labored  under  peculiar  disadvantages  in  common  with 
all  the  central  slave  States.  The  peculiarity  of  the  present  crisis 
is  the  wonderful  activity  and  energy  of  the  people  and  the  State 
authorities  contrasted  with  the  relative  inactivity  of  the  central 
government.  In  the  free  States  the  governments  have  been  loyal, 
and  they  have  organized  and  aided  the  enthusiasm  of  the  volun 
teers.  The  central  slave  States,  betrayed  or  deserted  by  their 
State  governments,  have  been  abandoned  by  the  national  govern- 


246  ADDEESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

ment  almost  to  their  unaided  resources — disarmed,  unorganized, 
half  defended. 

But,  gentlemen,  a  different  state  of  affairs,  I  believe,  now  exists. 
I  think  now  the  ear  of  power  is  open  to  wiser  counsels  touching 
the  military  policy  to  be  pursued  in  Maryland,  and,  I  trust,  in  the 
central  slave  States  generally.  I  know  that  now  they  listen  to 
and  act  upon  the  representations  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Purnell.  (Ap 
plause.)  I  know  that  they  now  listen  to  Governor  Thomas,  of 
the  Upper  District.  (Kenewed  applause.)  I  know  that  they  listen 
to  the  appeals  of  Mr.  Wallace,  of  Cambridge.  (Continued  ap 
plause.)  I  know  that  now  they  listen  to  the  suggestions  of  Mr. 
Dodge,  the  Chief  of  Police.  (Great  applause.)  I  know  that  while 
for  long  months  they  refused  to  arm  our  Home  Guard,  even  at 
the  solicitations  of  General  Banks,  repeatedly  pressed,  at  length 
they  have  come  to  think  that  it  is  perhaps  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
government,  in  dealing  with  a  great  rebellion,  to  inquire  for,  and 
to  organize  and  arm  loyal  men  for  their  own  defense  in  disturbed 
districts ;  and  now  we  have  the  Purnell  legion  forming  at  Pikes- 
vine,  Governor  Thomas's  brigade  forming  in  the  upper  portion  of 
the  State,  several  regiments  organizing  around  the  city,  two  al 
ready  in  the  service  of  the  government,  and  others  forming  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  State ;  and,  in  my  judgment,  so  soon  as  the  peo 
ple  shall,  in  November,  have  elected  a  governor  and  a  Legislature 
that  will  do  for  the  people  of  Maryland  what  every  where  has 
been  done  by  the  Legislatures  of  our  brethren  in  the  North  for 
their  volunteers,  give  them  the  aid,  and  countenance,  and  pecun 
iary  assistance  of  the  State,  and  the  outfit  that  is  necessary  to  facil 
itate  enlistments,  that  Maryland  will  stand  in  this  contest  as  she 
has  always  stood  in  every  other  contest,  not  lagging  behind  her 
brethren,  but  struggling  with  them  for  the  foremost  rank  where 
glory  is  to  be  won.  (Great  applause.) 

If  I  may  be  allowed  to  criticise  the  conduct  of  an  administra 
tion  which  I  did  not  help  to  make,  but  which  I  rejoice  was  formed 
— for  John  Bell  is  a  traitor — and  for  whose  success  I  am  more 
earnestly  anxious  than  for  any  that  has  wielded  power  in  my  day 
(applause)  —  an  administration  which,  weak  or  strong,  is  the  last 
and  only  hope  of  the  American  people,  which  must  be  supported 
let  whatever  else  may  fail  (great  applause) — in  spite  of  the  con 
tempt  with  which  it  has  treated  the  people  of  Maryland,  in  spite 
of  that  lack  of  magnanimous  wisdom  which  would  have  taught  it 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  247 

not  to  overlook  the  great  body  of  the  central  States  in  high  civil 
and  military  appointments  —  however  much  these  things  may 
grate  upon  our  feelings,  however  much  they  may  tend  to  dampen 
the  spirits  and  slacken  the  energy  of  our  people,  however  much 
the  administration  may  find  too  late  that  it  has  weakened  its 
power,  however  much  already  they  may  have  expanded  the  the 
atre  of  war  and  advanced  the  frontier  of  the  fight  nearer  to  the 
national  capital — just  in  proportion  as  these  disastrous  conse 
quences  have  followed  for  that  great  error  in  point  of  public  pol 
icy,  just  by  so  much  the  more  earnest  motives  are  we,  men  of  Ma 
ryland,  called  on  to  forget  the  past,  to  obliterate  its  bitter  recollec 
tions,  to  forbid  any  thing  like  pride  to  arise  in  our  gorges,  to  put 
down  at  the  bidding  of  patriotism  every  ill  spirit  that  would  par 
alyze  our  arms,  and,  forgetting  the  past,  rush  forward  to  the  fu 
ture,  and  take  our  revenge  of  those  who  have  slighted  us  by 
heaping  the  coals  of  fire  of  repentance  upon  their  head.  (Great 
applause.) 

That  the  administration  chose  to  constitute  itself  on  a  strictly 
party  basis  in  its  higher  department  is  not  a  just  subject  of  com 
plaint,  especially  after  the  President  had  tendered  to  Mr.  Gilmer, 
of  North  Carolina,  a  place  in  his  cabinet,  which  he  declined.  But 
it  is  a  matter  of  complaint  that  the  importance  of  securing  sup 
port,  organizing  friends,  arming  loyal  citizens  in  the  great  central 
slave  States  was  so  gravely  underrated ;  and  while  the  other  de 
partments  are  filled  with  men  equal  to  their  respective  duties,  it  is 
a  matter  of  great  regret  that  those  departments  chiefly  and  direct 
ly  charged  with  the  military  policy  of  the  administration  have 
fallen  below  the  requirements  of  the  times.  They  spent  one 
month  of  precious  time  before  apparently  they  took  one  step  to 
meet  the  storm  that  was  blackening  the  whole  heavens  before 
them.  Then,  while  yet  war  was  afar,  ere  Tennessee  had  yielded 
to  the  gentle  pressure  of  the  Southern  bayonet,  while  yet  Mis 
souri  was  free  from  armed  invasion,  ere  secession  had  grown  to 
rebellion  in  Kentucky,  they  let  pass  the  golden  opportunity  of 
feeling  their  way  through  these  great  States  and  finding  friends 
over  that  great  region.  They  left  the  friends  of  the  Union  not 
only  unable  to  fight  its  battles,  but  unable  to  defend  themselves. 
They  left  a  majority  of  the  people  of  Tennessee  to  be  borne  down 
by  violence  from  abroad,  and  to  be  disheartened  by  the  desertion 
of  the  national  government.  They  allowed  disaffection  to  spread 


248  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

in  Kentucky,  until  Kentucky,  in  spite  of  her  overwhelming  Union 
majority,  hung  trembling  in  the  balance,  and  was  driven  to  repel 
invasion  from  her  soil.  They  left  Missouri  without  the  aid  of  ad 
ditional  soldiers,  and  her  own  Home  Guard  only  half  armed,  until 
she  was  nearly  overrun.  They  left  Maryland  without  a  musket 
in  the  hand  of  one  of  her  sons  for  four  dangerous  months  after 
they  were  in  power.  Had  they  sought,  as  a  wise  policy  would 
have  dictated,  friends  in  the  midst  of  the  doubtful  States,  they 
could  have  saved  Tennessee ;  they  could  have  commenced  the 
war  upon  the  northern  borders  of  Alabama  and  of  Georgia,  where 
we  know  the  partisans  of  the  government,  though  now  silenced, 
swarm  by  the  thousands ;  they  could  have  held  possession  of  the 
great  central  nucleus  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  filled  with  its 
freemen  ready  to  descend  in  every  direction  upon  the  plains  be 
low,  carrying  with  them  the  emblem  of  hope  and  peace  to  our 
oppressed  brethren  in  the  cotton  districts.  Had  Maryland  been 
properly  armed,  had  her  citizens  been  called  out,  had  even  that 
despised  contingent  of  the  three  months'  men  been  accepted,  they 
might  not  now  have  been  confined  to  one  railway  for  all  their 
Western  communications ;  the  loyal  part  of  Virginia  might  have 
crossed  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  stretched  to  the  Blue  Ridge. 
The  whole  face  and  aspect  of  the  wrar  would  have  been  changed 
by  timely  attention  to  the  first  elements  of  success  in  dealing  with 
an  insurrection — to  find  out  the  men  on  the  spot,  in  the  disturbed 
district,  as  near  as  possible  to  the  focus  of  the  rebellion,  who  are 
there  interested  in  putting  out  the  flames,  and  give  them  at  least 
an  opportunity  of  aiding  in  their  own  defense.  The  event  of  Bull 
Run  has,  I  think,  made  the  administration  sadder  and  wiser  men. 
They  possibly  have  reflected  that  there  the  despised  Maryland 
contingent  might  have  turned  that  tide  of  battle,  for  it  was  just 
four  thousand  men  that  converted  a  victory  into  a  defeat  when 
brought  against  our  exhausted  brethren,  borne  down  by  the  heat 
of  that  day's  conflict.  They  have  now  begun — begun  in  earnest 
—I  trust  begun  successfully — (applause) — to  organize  the  men  of 
the  great  central  slave  States,  who  to  them  are  an  elemeut  of  un 
told  power.  Equally  brave  with  their  Northern  brethren,  they 
are  a  thousand  times  more  interested  in  suppressing  the  rebellion, 
for  it  touches  their  homes,  their  hearths,  their  lives.  Massachu 
setts  has  her  pride  in  the  republic.  So  have  Maryland,  and  Ken 
tucky,  and  Tennessee,  and  Missouri,  and  Delaware.  Massachu- 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  249 

setts  has  her  interest  in  the  cotton  region.  So  has  Maryland,  as 
well  as  her  interest  in  her  own  fields.  But,  beyond  all  that,  we 
of  the  central  slave  States  have  our  liberty  at  stake ;  if  we  fail  we 
are  a  conquered  people ;  we  pass  from  the  glories  of  the  American 
republic  to  be  the  suspected,  watched,  and  chained  subjects  of  a 
power  we  abhor,  and  which  hates  us. 

Having  already  traced  the  position  of  Maryland,  I  need  now 
but  point  your  eyes  for  inspiration  to  the  present  condition  of 
Kentucky.  Betrayed  by  her  treacherous  governor,  placed  in  the 
disloyal  attitude  of  neutrality  by  her  last  Legislature,  invaded  by 
an  armed  force  from  Tennessee,  deserted  or  assailed  by  such  men 
as  Breckinridge  and  his  associates,  she  has,  as  one  man  almost, 
through  her  present  Legislature,  proclaimed  her  readiness  to  do 
her  duty.  When  her  energy  was  quickened '  into  activity  by 
actual  invasion,  then  her  Legislature  met ;  made  a  loan  for  two 
millions  of  dollars,  called  out  40,000  volunteers ;  and  then,  as  if 
to  cover  with  contumely  the  men  who  speak  only  of  "  our  South 
ern  brethren,"  they  passed  by  overwhelming  majorities  that  touch 
ing  vote  of  thanks  to  the  men  of  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  who 
came  rushing  in  arms  ("Black  Eepublicans"  and  "Lincoln's 
myrmidons"  as  they  are)  to  protect  Kentucky  against  her  South 
ern  brethren.  (Applause.) 

And  there  is  Missouri,  neglected  by  the  War  Department,  de 
fended  by  her  half-armed  and  half-organized  sons  until  they  were 
decimated  by  superior  numbers,  and  the  gallant  Lyon  fell  a  sacri 
fice  to  his  unsupported  heroism ;  and  then,  when  they  came  to 
rest  on  the  support  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  two 
thirds  of  their  state  was  overrun,  and  a  large  body  of  troops  and 
Home  Guards  captured  right  on  the  great  highway  of  the  Missouri 
Eiver  for  lack  of  timely  support. 

It  is  vain  to  inquire  who  is  responsible  for  such  disasters — the 
War  Department,  charged  with  organizing  the  force,  or  the  mili 
tary  officer  commissioned  to  lead  them ;  it  lies  between  them,  and 
this  country  will  hold  both  responsible.  I  fear  that  the  man  to 
whom  the  destinies  of  Missouri  are  committed  is  fitter  to  issue 
proclamations  violating  every  principle  of  the  law  of  the  land, 
and  looking  only  to  one  purpose— his  political  elevation— than  he 
is  either  to  organize  a  force  to  repel  invasion,  or,  it  may  be,  to  lead 
it  after  it  is  organized.  He  is  not  able  (such  is  the  last  account) 
to  move  yet  over  ground  where  Lyon  moved  with  none  but  Mis- 


250  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

sourians  at  his  back  (applause) — not  able  yet  to  move  because  of 
lack  of  transportation,  surrounded  by  loyal  people  and  by  loyal 
States — not  able  to  move  for  lack  of  subsistence,  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  great  granary  of  the  United  States.  No  man  can  believe, 
if  these  things  be  true,  that  a  heavy  debt  of  responsibility  does  not 
rest  at  somebody's  door,  to  be  answered  for  at  some  not  very  dis 
tant  day.  I  feel  for  the  men  of  Missouri,  for  they  have  not  lain 
supinely  down  and  waited  to  be  defended ;  but  they  have  been 
overborne ;  I  say  they  are  entitled  to  look  to  the  government  not 
merely  for  willing  troops — they  have  been  furnished  by  the 
thousand  with,  that  spontaneous  enthusiasm  which  finds  no  equal 
in  the  history  of  the  world — they  are  entitled  to  a  leader  who  will 
not  lack  transportation,  nor  food,  nor  means  to  reach  the  enemy. 
(Applause.)  Instead,  they  have  a  man  who  publishes  gasconading 
proclamations  fitter  for  a  European  despot  than  an  American 
officer,  such  as  "I  do  hereby  extend  and  declare  established  mar 
tial  law  throughout  the  State  of  Missouri,"  two  thirds  of  it  in  the 
possession  of  the  armed  rebels ;  "  the  lines  of  the  army  of  occu 
pation  in  this  state  are  for  the  present  declared  to  extend  from 
Leavenworth,  by  way  of  the  posts  of  Jefferson  City,  Rolla,  and 
Ironton,  to  Cape  Girardeau  on  the  Mississippi  River,"  within 
which  they  took  Lexington  from  him  the  other  day ;  and  then 
followed  by  the  brutum  fulmen  of  a  threat  at  the  bottom — "  all  per 
sons  who  shall  be  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  within  these 
lines  shall  be  tried  by  c^ourt-martial,  and,  if  found  guilty,  will  be 
shot" — in  the  face  of  the  solemn  provision  of  the  American  Con 
stitution  that  no  man  out  of  the  military  service  can  be  condemned 
except  by  a  jury  of  his  peers  before  a  court  of  the  State  or  dis 
trict  in  which  the  crime  was  committed,  with  an  indictment  and 
evidence,  and  the  right  to  have  counsel  and  all  the  precious  guards 
of  the  common  law  thrown  around  to  protect  his  life.  He  is  to 
be  tried  and  shot  at  the  will  of  General  Fremont,  and  whoever  he 
may  see  fit  to  appoint  to  try  him  over  a  drum-head  court-martial. 
It  received  its  fit  reward  in  having  the  very  country  over  which 
he  usurped  despotic  power  swept  from  beneath  him.  And  then, 
of  course,  it  was  impossible  for  a  man  who  has  high  political  as 
well  as  military  aspirations,  to  overlook  in  this  agitation  the  Negro 
Question  as  an  element  of  popularity,  and  thereupon  -we  have  this 
lord  and  master  of  the  free  people  of  Missouri  dealing  thus  with 
their  property :  "  The  property,  real  and  personal,  of  all  persons 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  251 

in  the  State  of  Missouri  who  shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United 
States,  and  who  shall  be  directly  proven  to  have  taken  active  part 
with  their  enemies  in  the  field,  is  declared  to  be  confiscated  to  the 
public  use,  and  their  slaves,  if  any  they  have,  are  hereby  declared 
free." 

The  President,  with  a  straightforward  honesty  that  has  marked 
his  every  act,  seized  the  earliest  opportunity  to  rebuke  that  usur 
pation  of  illegal  authority.  I  only  regret  that  he  did  not  go  far 
ther,  and  mark  with  his  disapprobation  that  clause  declaring  mar 
tial  law,  and  that  he  did  not  punish  the  usurpation  by  revoking 
the  commission  of  the  officer  who,  charged  with  high  and  respons 
ible  command  in  the  midst  of  a  slave  State,  gave  the  enemies  of 
the  government  so  serious  a  ground  on  which  to  impeach  their 
policy,  and  who  treated  the  representatives  of  the  people  with  so 
much  contempt  as  in  the  face  of  the  very  law  which  they  had 
passed  scarcely  one  month  before,  declaring  exactly  how  the 
property  of  rebels  should  be  dealt  with,  dared  thus  flagrantly  to 
usurp  legislative  powers,  and  deal  out  wholesale  confiscation  and 
emancipation  as  if  he  were  above  all  law.  I  think  that  the  inter 
ests  of  the  people  of  Missouri  would  be  safer  if  we  had  some  one 
who  could  be  content  with  high  military  command,  without  play 
ing  the  dictator,  who  would  confine  himself  to  marshaling  his 
hosts,  removing  armed  opposition,  vindicating  the  authority  of  the 
government,  and,  like  George  Washington,  be  content  to  obey  the 
laws,  and  not  either  violate  them  or  attempt  to  make  them.  (Ap 
plause.) 

Gentlemen,  I  have  detained  you  already  too  long  ("  Go  on"), 
and  I  have  only  one  or  two  observations  farther  to  submit  to  you. 
The  policy  of  the  administration  and  Congress  in  dealing  with 
this  rebellion  has  been  eminently  liberal.  The  policy  of  the  peo 
ple  in  the  rebellious  States  has  been  eminently  illiberal  and  barba 
rous.  The  men  who  pass  along  our  streets  and  talk  about  oppres 
sion,  are  careful  never  to  refer  to  the  enactments  of  the  Southern 
usurping  Legislature ;  they  never  refer  to  that  law  which  authori 
zes  and  directs  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  to  imprison 
every  alien  enemy,  meaning  our  fellow-citizens — which  banishes 
every  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  will  not  acknowledge  their 
authority — which  sequesters  every  cent's  worth  of  property  of 
every  man  living  in  any  of  the  Northern  States — which  dooms  to 
the  halter,  or  to  exile  or  imprisonment,  every  resident  who,  how- 


252  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

ever  peaceable,  refused  to  acknowledge  their  usurping  domina 
tion.  Were  we  to  apply  that  rule  to  the  gentlemen  who  insult 
our  moderation,  how  quickly  should  we  in  Baltimore  be  freed 
from  the  scowling  looks,  and  the  averted  glances,  and  the  insolent 
tones,  and  the  menaces  of  retaliation  that  meet  us  every  day  and 
every  where.  How  different,  gentlemen,  is  the  policy  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States.  It  confiscates  nobody's  property, 
even  although  taken  in  arms  against  the  government.  Fremont's 
proclamation  presumed,  in  the  face  of  the  act  of  Congress,  to  do 
that.  The  law  had  forbidden  it ;  the  law  condemns  only  property 
which  has  been  used  for  rebellious  purposes ;  it  sets  free  only 
slaves  that  have  been  used  to  prosecute  the  war;  it  confiscates 
only  property  that  has  been  used  in  the  course  of  commerce  be 
tween  the  rebellious  States  and  the  loyal  States,  and  there  it 
stops ;  lays  hold  of  the  thing  that  sins ;  it  confiscates  nothing 
beyond ;  it  leaves  the  estates  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  left 
Maryland  to  wage  war  against  their  native  State  untouched  by 
the  law  of  confiscation ;  it  leaves  the  negroes,  however  powerful 
an  element  they  might  be  made  of  embarrassment  in  the  slave- 
holding  States,  untouched,  save  where  their  masters  have  first  used 
them  to  aid  in  breaking  down  the  authority  of  the  United  States. 
Moderation,  liberality  is  every  where  manifested  by  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  just  as  vengeance,  illiberality,  a  dispo 
sition  to  grasp  and  seize  every  thing  within  their  power,  to  strip 
honest,  innocent  people,  widows  and  children  not  less  than  men 
in  arms,  of  their  last  support,  even  of  the  money  that  was  confided 
to  the  faith  of  their  States  by  being  invested  in  their  public  secu 
rities.  Gentlemen,  that  is  the  liberality,  the  respect  for  property, 
that  these  people  show  toward  our  fellow-citizens.  It  may  be  the 
foundation  of  a  serious  appeal  for  more  stringent  measures  if 
events  do  not  speedily  render  them  unnecessary.  (Applause.) 

Gentlemen,  there  is  nothing  of  such  hopeful  "augury  as  the 
moderation  of  the  United  States  in  dealing  with  this  great  rebel 
lion  ;  and  on  that  one  subject  of  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  tempt 
ing  as  it  is  to  political  aspirants,  tempting  as  it  is  to  men  who  wish 
a  short  method  of  dealing  with  a  great  rebellion,  those  in  power 
have  felt  the  responsibilities  of  power,  and  know  that  they  are 
wielding  power  only  to  support  the  laws.  They  know  that  they 
are  just  as  much  bound  to  protect  that  property  as  any  other 
property,  and  that  no  citizen's  property  can  be  taken  at  the  will 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  253 

of  the  government  otherwise  than  according  to  law  and  the  Con 
stitution.  Only  ignorant  fanatics  prate  about  decrees  of  emanci 
pation.  Therefore  it  is  that  every  where  wherever  the  arms  of 
the  United  States  have  penetrated  any  of  the  slaveholding  States, 
you  have  found  no  servile  rebellion  following  their  ranks  or  break 
ing  out  to  meet  them.  A  few  stragglers  find  their  way  into  the 
camps,  a  few  seek  protection,  a  few  seize  the  opportunity  of  run 
ning  away  from  their  masters,  but  any  thing  like  a  servile  insur 
rection  has  not  been  heard  of  any  where  in  the  presence  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States.  That  is  the  short  reply  to  every  im 
putation  upon  the  faith  of  the  government.  (Applause.) 

But  the  great  question  remains,  Can  the  government  succeed  in 
maintaining  its  authority  ?  ("Yes.")  That  question  events  alone 
can  answer.  In  my  judgment,  if  the  wisdom  which  wields  the 
power  be  only  equal  to  the  enthusiasm,  the  devotion,  the  liberal 
ity  with  which  the  people  and  the  States  have  lavished  men  and 
money  in  the  cause  of  the  republic,  then  there  is  no  doubt  ,as  to 
what  the  result  will  be.  (Applause.)  It  may  be  that  here  now, 
as  heretofore  in  the  history  of  the  world,  a  great  cause  may  fail  in 
the  field  for  lack  of  great  ability  to  guide  it  in  the  proper  depart 
ments  of  the  cabinet.  We  humbly  and  earnestly  trust  that  that 
will  not  be  the  case.  Eashness  has  already  been  punished ;  dis 
regard  of  high  military  advice  has  already  met  humiliation ;  hu 
miliation  has  probably  brought  forth  repentance,  and  repentance 
is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  here 
after  military  questions  will  be  left  to  military  men,  and  military 
men  with  heads  upon  their  shoulders  will  be  allowed  to  organize 
and  direct  the  military  power  of  the  United  States.  (Great  ap 
plause.)  I  know,  fellow-citizens,  that  great  changes  have  been 
wrought  lately  in  both  the  military  departments.  Up  to  this 
time  the  blockade  has  been  a  mockery ;  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
after  six  months',  experience,  has  found  it  out,  and  there  has  been 
there  a  change.  lie  has  found  out  that  age  and  decrepitude  are 
not  indispensable  for  command,  and  that  Southern  birth  and  resi 
dence  are  not  disqualifications.  Maryland  and  Delaware  have 
been  honored  by  high  and  responsible  commands  in  the  persons 
of  Goldsborough  and  Dupont,  who  are  about  to  sail  from  our  ports 
with  great  expeditions  under  their  charge — already  too  long  de 
layed — but,  in  their  hands,  sure  to  prove  fruitful  of  high  enter 
prise  and  great  results.  (Applause.) 


254:  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

The  wisdom  of  their  selections  redeems  many  of  the  delays  and 
blunders  which  have  led  to  them.  The  administration  have 
shown  no  greater  knowledge  of  men,  no  greater  determination  to 
subordinate  unjust  suspicions  to  the  necessities  of  the  public  serv 
ice  and  sound  policy,  than  when  from  the  bosom  of  two  slave- 
holding  States  they  selected  the  leaders  of  these  great  expeditions, 
which,  uniting  under  the  same  command  officers  of  high  merit 
from  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina,  together  with  men  from 
the  slave  and  men  from  the  free  States,  fitly  represent  the  unity 
of  the  national  power  whose  banner  they  are  charged  to  restore 
on  the  Atlantic  coast.  (Great  applause.) 

The  War  Department  has  been  taught  by  the  misfortune  of 
Bull  Eun,  which  has  broken  no  power  nor  any  spirit;  which 
bowed  no  State,  nor  made  any  heart  falter ;  which  was  felt  as  a 
humiliation,  and  which,  strung  men's  nerves  to  retrieve  in,  that 
has  brought  forth  wisdom.  They  now  know,  if  they  did  not 
know  before,  that  a  half-equipped  army  is  not  fit  to  deal  with  the 
desperate  powers  arrayed  against  the  government.  They  now 
know  that  equality  of  forces  is  not  a  becoming  proportion  for  a 
government  in  the  face  of  a  rebellion  it  is  about  to  suppress ;  it 
looks  too  much  like  a  struggle  between  a  strong  government  and 
a  weak  one.  They  know  now  that  it  requires  military  knowl 
edge  to  lead -a  host;  that  it  requires  months  to  convert  a  crowd 
into  an  army ;  that  without  artillery  a  modern  army  is  nothing, 
and  that  without  cavalry  it  is  a  bird  without  wings ;  that,  without 
the  means  of  following  up  a  victory,  victory  is  worthless.  They 
now  know7  that  victory  at  Bull  Eun  would  have  been  disaster  and 
not  success  ;  that,  had  they  beaten  the  enemy  finally  as  they  had 
beaten  actually  from  the  field  at  one  period  in  the  day  the  Con 
federate  forces,  they  could  not  have  followed  up  the  victory ;  that 
if  they  had  attempted  to  follow  it  up,  they  would  have  found 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  Virginia  with  an  army  melting  like 
snow  beneath  the  sun  ;  that  the  three  months'  volunteers,  as  their 
terms  of  enlistment  expired,  would  have  left  a  remnant  in  the 
centre  of  Virginia  to  be  a  prey  for  the  rebels'  swollen  power. 
How  earnestly  true  was  the  exhortation  of  the  great  military 
leader  and  adviser  of  the  administration  appears  by  this — that 
Bull  Eun  having  been  fought  upon  the  20th  of  July,  the  army  of 
the  United  States,  under  a  commander  of  relentless  activity  and 
energy,  and  of  ability  equal  to  the  highest  in  the  army,  is  still 


ON  THE  PKESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  255 

drilling,  going  through  its  parades,  being  organized,  waiting  for 
its  material  of  war,  within  five  miles  of  the  City  of  "Washington. 
All  that  they  gained  by  the  battle  of  Bull  Eun  was  that,  instead 
of  being  able  to  march  in  October,  as  Winfield  Scott  told  them, 
they  would  if  they  let  him  alone,  and  did  not  push  him  on  before 
he  was  ready  to  go ;  they  are  not  yet  ready,  and  we  are  past  the 
middle  of  October  itself,  and  probably  will  not  be  ready  before 
November.  But,  gentlemen,  when  that  movement  takes  place,  it 
will  be  no  array  of  straggling  regiments  hunting  up  a  commander 
over  a  vast  field  of  battle  (laughter) ;  it  will  be  no  disorganized 
body  of  regiments  never  bound  together  in  a  brigade,  and  which 
hardly  saw  their  commander's  or  their  companion's  face  until  the 
day  of  battle,  but  it  will  be  the  best  men  of  the  American  people 
— as  good,  ay,  better  than  ever  faced  an  enemy  in  the  same  num 
bers  before  (applause),  accustomed  to  all  the  evolutions  of  modern 
warfare,  having  profound  confidence  in  their  young  and  brilliant 
leader  (great  applause),  accustomed  by  continual  reconnoissances 
and  skirmishes  to  meet  the  enemy  in  arms  and  learn  what  battle 
is,  blended  into  that  compound  of  steel  and  fire  which  makes  an 
army  ready  to  be  launched  like  one  of  God's  bolts  upon  the  ene 
mies  of  the  country.  (Great  applause.)  We  may  fail  again,  for 
war  is  a  game  of  blended  skill  and  chance  whose  determination 
is  with  the  Most  High  (applause) ;  but  I  earnestly  trust  and  be 
lieve  we  shall  not  fail.  The  activity  and  energy  with  which  those 
in  power  are  now  endeavoring  to  second  the  efforts  of  military 
men  to  organize  a  force  before  encountering  the  chances  of  de 
feat  are  of  good  augury  for  the  republic. 

When  the  banner  once  more  points  forward,  it  will  proudly  ad 
vance  until  the  rejoicing  soldier  shall,  like  Xenophon's  Greeks  at 
the  aspect  of  the  Euxine,  after  their  weary  march,  greet  with  the 
cry  of  "  The  sea,"  "  The  sea,"  the  glancing  waves  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  (applause) ;  penetrating  at  more  than  one  point,  armies 
of  deliverance  shall  march,  not  to  subjugate,  but  to  free;  not  to 
violate  any  law  of  the  land,  but  to  enforce  them  all ;  to  put  down 
rebellion  and  its  armed  insolence ;  to  restore  to  loyal  hearts  the 
security  that  for  long  months  they  have  not  known ;  to  restore 
the  ancient  boundaries  of  the  republic ;  to  wipe  out  from  the  es 
cutcheon  of  the  nation  the  stain  of  our  failing  arms ;  to  restore 
our  reputation  before  the  nations  of  the  world  ;  to  teach  men  that 
liberty  is  not  a  mockery,  and  a  republic  is  not  another  name  for 


256  ADDRESS  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  BALTIMORE 

feebleness  or  anarchy ;  to  teach  the  jeering  tyrants  of  the  Old 
World  that  their  day  is  not  come  yet ;  to  let  them  know  that  the 
Bulwer  Lyttons  can  prophesy  in  vain,  and  see  false  visions  in 
their  hopes  of  the  overthrow  of  the  great  rival  of  England,  and 
that  Alison  does  n(5t  comprehend  the  greatness  of  this  people,  nor 
the  peculiarity  of  their  genius,  when  he  indites  puerile  epistles 
about  an  Established  Church  and  a  limited  monarchy  for  the  free 
men  of  America.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 

Gentlemen,  we  do  not  want  the  assistance  of  the  people  across 
the  water.  We  do  not  fear  their  hostility.  We  shall  be  glad  of 
their  good  will ;  we  will  not  mourn  if  it  is  withdrawn.  We  know 
that  we  owe  them  nothing  but  good  will,  and  that  we  are  ready 
to  reciprocate.  It  is  our  duty  to  take  care  of  ourselves.  We 
mean  to  be  fully  up  to  that  duty.  We  rely  upon  their  interests, 
and  not  upon  their  love,  to  let  us  alone.  We  know  that  the  South 
is  disappointed  in  the  expectation  of  having  the  blockade  broken 
merely  because  John  Bull  counted  the  cost,  and  found  that  a  war 
with  the  United  States  would  cost  more  than  the  Southern  cotton 
would  pay  for.  We  know  very  well  that  Louis  Napoleon  prefers 
not  to  pick  any  quarrel  with  this  country,  among  other  reasons 
because  the  navy  of  England  overmatches  his  own,  and  he  sees 
the  time  when  possibly  the  sailors  of  America  may  be  needed  to 
balance  the  power  of  England.  (Applause.)  We  know  that 
while  one  interest  would  prompt  him  to  embarrass,  another,  a 
greater,  a  near  one,  compels  him  to  let  us  alone ;  for  he  is  sur 
rounded  by  revolutionary  fires,  stifled  but  not  extinct,  and  if  he 
turns  from  home  he  may  find  that  "  fire  in  the  rear"  uncomfort 
ably  girding  his  revolutionary  throne.  (Laughter.)  There  is 
some  sympathy,  strange  to  say,  and  it  has  more  than  once  been 
manifested,  by  the  great  despot  of  Russia  for  this  great  democ 
racy.  They  seem  to  have  a  kindred  feeling  in  their  youth,  their 
newness,  their  growing  strength,  their  freedom  from  most  of  the 
embarrassments  of  other  governments,  and  the  boundless  regions 
of  space  that  invites  them  to  expand  their  empire.  They  feel 
that  to  them  belongs  the  future,  however  different  the  form,  of 
empire  ;  and  although  we  may  seek  our  advancement  in  different 
methods  and  in  different  forms,  yet  each,  in  his  appropriate  sphere, 
in  his  appointed  time,  in  his  own  way,  is  working  out  the  great 
problem  of  human  destiny — we  of  human  freedom  on  this  side 


ON  THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  NATION.  257 

the  Atlantic,  he  of  human  civilization  among  the  half-civilized 
men  of  Asia. 

But,  while  we  accept  the  courtesy  of  the  Autocrat's  good  wish 
es,  we  trust  nothing  to  his  good  will ;  our  fate  is  in  our  own  hands ; 
on  them  alone  we  must  rely.  There  is  now*  no  prospect  of  for 
eign  intrusion,  but  no  man  can  tell  what  a  day  may  bring  forth. 
We  shall,  I  think,  meet  with  no  disturbance  from  beyond  the  At 
lantic  at  present.  To-morrow  it  may  suit  the  policy  of  England, 
or  France,  or  Eussia  to  fling  their  sword  into  the  scale  of  our  des 
tinies,  and  that  might  decide  them.  Now  is  the  time,  at  once, 
without  delay,  unitedly  for  us  here  in  Maryland,  as  well  as  those 
in  Kentucky  and  those  in  Missouri,  with  our  brethren  in  the 
North,  to  scatter  and  destroy  at  one  blow  the  armed  array  of  our 
enemies,  ere  delay  consolidates  their  power  or  foreign  complica 
tion  embarrasses  our  arms.  We  must  not  merely  defeat,  we  must 
destroy  the  army  before  Washington.  That  will  break  the  mili 
tary  power  of  the  rebellion,  and  whenever  the  sword  shall  be 
stricken  from  the  hand  which  lifted  it  against  the  Union,  the  ter 
rors  of  despotic  power  will  vanish  from  the  land,  and  grateful 
eyes  will  turn  in  tears  to  greet  the  unforgotten  banner  of  the  re 
public. 

K 


CONSTITUTIONAL  POWEKS  SUFFICIENT  FOR 
REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION. 

WHILE  thoroughly  upholding  the  government  in  all  lawful  and  proper 
efforts  to  put  down  the  rebellion,  Mr.  Davis  freely  criticised  those  acts 
of  doubtful  expediency,  and  still  more  doubtful  lawfulness,  which  were, 
perhaps,  almost  unavoidable  amid  such  confusion  of  affairs  and  such  un 
certainty  as  to  men,  especially  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 

He  condemned  from  the  first  the  use  of  the  word  "  blockade,"'  as  ap 
plied  to  our  own  ports  held  by  rebel  insurgents,  whereby  belligerent  rights 
seemed  impliedly  conceded,  or,  at  any  rate,  whereby  an  argument  was 
afforded  to  those  who  did  concede  such  rights  to  those  insurgents.  He 
condemned  the  virtual  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus  by  the  President, 
which  could  be  authorized  by  act  of  Congress  alone.  He  condemned 
the  proclamation  of  martial  law  in  districts  where  the  execution  of  the 
United  States  laws  was  not  impeded  by  insurgent  force.  He  condemned 
the  permission  by  the  government  of  such  outrages  against  law,  and  such 
blunders  in  policy  as  Fremont  was  daily  committing  in  Missouri;  and 
he  boldly  set  forth  what  he  thought  the  proper  course  in  such  respects 
to  be  pursued  by  a  government  restoring  law  and  order  in  regions  where 
both  had  been  subverted  by  insurrection. 

For  these  utterances  Mr.  Davis  was  condemned  by  those  extreme  par 
tisans  who  held  that  all  things  which  could  be  wreaked  on  the  insurgents 
were  fair  and  lawful,  although  the  attempt  should  involve  the  extinction 
of  rights  not  less  dear  than  the  preservation  of  the  Union  itself.  Yet,  in 
thus  condemning  certain  mistakes,  Mr.  Davis  certainly  offered  that  sup 
port  of  the  administration  which  comes  from  the  judicious  reproof  of  a 
friend,  and  therein  he  showed  himself  a  truer  supporter  than  those  incau 
tious  men  whose  rash  advice,  or  worse  than  rash  actions,  only  added  to 
the  number  of  its  enemies. 

Mr.  Davis  availed  himself  of  an  opportunity  to  speak  on  these  points 
as  early  as  November,  1861,  at  Brooklyn,  in  the  following  address: 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THIS  ASSOCIATION, — In 
the  corner-stone  of  the  southern  wing  of  the  Capitol  at  Washing 
ton,  in  the  hand- writing  of  Daniel  Webster,  are  these  words :  "If, 
therefore,  it  shall  be  hereafter  the  will  of  God  that  this  structure 


CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT,  ETC.  259 

shall  fall  from  its  base,  that  its  foundation  be  upturned,  and  this 
deposit  brought  to  the  eyes  of  men,  be  it  then  known  that  on  this 
day  the  Union  of  the  United  States  of  America  stands  firm,  that 
their  Constitution  still  exists  unimpaired,  and,  with  all  its  original 
usefulness  and  glory,  growing  every  day  stronger  and  stronger  in 
the  affection  of  the  great  body  of  the  American  people,  and  at 
tracting  more  and  more  the  admiration  of  the  world."  That  de 
posit  is  hardly  ten  years  old.  Daniel  Webster  has  not  been  gath 
ered  to  his  fathers  ten  years,  and  that  stone  is  rocked  by  the  earth 
quake  of  revolution.  Those  institutions,  whose  success  he  sup 
posed  he  was  announcing  to  a  distant  futurity,  seem  now  already 
to  be  losing  their  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  people  and  the  re 
spect  of  nations  abroad.  Were  he  now  called  on  to  rewrite  that 
solemn  proclamation  to  posterity,  he  would  lower  its  lofty  tone. 
He  would  say, 

"  The  Union  of  the  United  States  of  America  is  now  assailed 
and  shaken  to  its  foundations ;  their  Constitution  has  ceased,  in  a 
great  measure,  to  command  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Amer 
ica  or  the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  the  people  themselves  seek 
after  a  master." 

The  path  of  a  nation  in  search  of  a  master  is  broad  enough  and 
of  varied  aspect.  Nations  have  sought  him  in  the  imperfections 
of  their  national  institutions ;  in  the  madness  of  civil  strife ;  at  the 
hands  of  foreign  intervention ;  in  the  degeneracy  and  corruptions 
of  their  own  manners ;  in  appeals  from  the  ballot-box  to  the  sword 
at  the  bidding  or  for  the  advancement  of  personal  ambition.  The 
people  of  America  now  exhibit  more  than  one  of  the  symptoms 
of  that  fatal  hunt.  One  great  region  is  marching  in  the  path  of 
Mexico  to  the  overthrow  of  a  government  it  has  ceased  to  control. 
The  other  great  region  is  following  in  that  deadly  path— uncon- 
sciously  perhaps,  not  so  palpably,  but  not  less  surely,  not  less  fa 
tally — by  the  blind  madness  with  which  they  throw  down  every 
barrier  liberty  has  erected  against  arbitrary  power  in  their  reck 
less  eagerness  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  nation.  They  see 
the  gulf,  and  think  nothing  too  precious  to  fill  it.  They  are  ready 
to  lay  their  liberty  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  victory. 

When  Daniel  Webster  died,  American  liberty  looked  strong 
and  was  boastful  of  its  strength ;  when  President  Buchanan  left 
the  White  House,  American  liberty  was  like  Herod,  eaten  of 
worms  beneath  his  royal  robes,  and  ready  to  give  up  the  ghost. 


260  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

The  foundations  of  the  constitutional  edifice  were  already  secretly 
sapped;  the  mortar  was  already  picked  from  the  stones;  and 
when  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  pronounced  the  Dred  Scott 
judgment,  the  very  caryatides  of  the  Constitution  were  seen  to 
bend  beneath  the  unusual  pressure,  and  the  whole  edifice  seemed, 
to  thoughtful  eyes,  to  rush  to  its  ruin.  The  sap  went  on  more 
earnestly,  more  vigorously ;  and  as  the  catastrophe  approached,  all 
the  energy  and  audacity  seemed  on  the  side  of  the  assailants ;  all 
the  doubt,  all  the  hesitation,  all  the  timidity  on  the  side  of  the  de 
fenders — paralyzed  at  the  awful  aspect  of  the  national  dissolution. 
Then  it  was  that  the  enemies  of  the  republic  thought  their  day 
was  come ;  they  rushed  openly  to  the  assault  of  the  breach  they 
had  been  so  long  and  so  secretly  preparing.  In  their  exulting 
confidence  they  boastfully  shouted, 

"York  is  joined  to  Bolingbroke, 
And  all  your  northern  castles  yielded  up, 
And  all  your  southern  gentlemen  in  arras 
Upon  his  party." 

And  the  sovereign  people  thought  their  power  doomed  when 
breathless  messengers  from  the  South  gasped  out. 

"  White  beards  have  armed  their  thin  and  hairless  scalps 
Against  thy  majesty ;  and  boys  with  women's  voices 
Speak  big,  and  clap  their  female  joints 
In  stiff,  unwieldy  arms  against  thy  crown  ; 
Even  thy  beadsmen  learn  to  bend  their  bows 
Of  double  fatal  yew  against  thy  state  ; 
Yea,  distaff  women  manage  rusty  bills 
Against  thy  seat ;  both  young  and  old  rebel." 

Bold  men  thought  the  last  day  of  the  republic  was  come.  Bad 
men  withdrew  to  seize  their  part  of  the  dismembered  heritage. 
Timid  friends  gathered  round  the  bed  of  the  dying  patient,  and 
talked  hopefully  of  peaceful  dissolution';  and  when  rash  men 
whispered,  even  with  bated  breath,  of  coercive  remedies,  they 
were  put  far  off,  lest  the  shock  of  the  suggestion  might  hasten  the 
catastrophe. 

And  then  an  unaccustomed  sound  echoed  over  the  land  —  a 
strange  event — a  new  thing  under  the  sun — American  arms  point 
ed  cannon  at  American  breasts  —  American  shot  shattered  an 
American  fortress — American  hands  dragged  down  the  standard 
of  the  republic,  and  boasted  that  they  first  had  trailed  it  in  the 
dust. 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  261 

That  touched  a  nerve  of  exquisite  sensibility  which  vibrated 
to  the  heart  of  the  nation ;  and  it  rose  from  its  bed  of  death,  and 
cast  off  its  premature  grave-clothes,  and  challenged  its  right  to 
be  a  nation  of  history.  From  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  liv 
ing  men  stretched  forth  eager  hands  for  arms  to  defend  the  re 
public. 

And  then  the  people  passed  from  atomy  to  paroxysm  in  a  day. 
Action — action  was  the  cry ! 

The  people  were  summoned  to  action — action  upon  a  new  the 
atre — action  upon  new  principles  and  for  new  purposes — action 
on  new  paths,  different  from  the  recognized  and  used  paths  over 
which  the  American  people  had  in  this  generation  trodden — ac 
tion  at  the  bidding  of  one  stern  and  irresistible  impulse  that 
seemed  for  an  instant — nay,  for  months — to  blind  the  American 
people,  and  make  them  forget  the  salutary  principles  of  the  Con 
stitution,  which  was  framed  after  the  experience  of  one  revolution, 
and  is  competent  to  carry  the  nation  through  another  revolution. 
They  supposed,  because  they  had  not  hitherto  been  called  to  deal 
with  the  great  question  of  the  suppression  of  insurrection — the 
guarantee  of  republican  government  to  the  States — the  assertion 
of  the  supreme  authority  of  the  United  States — they  supposed 
that  laws  were  meant  for  times  of  peace,  that  constitutions  were 
only  to  be  obeyed  in  courts  of  law — that  now  fury  might  minister 
arms,  that  wrath  might  be  the  measure  as  well  as  the  instigation 
to  what  is  allowable  to  might.  The  maxims  of  the  hour,  urged 
by  the  press  and  the  people  on  those  in  power,  were,  "  Give  them 
as  good  as  they  send  —  do  as  they  do — make  those  acts  against 
which  you  protest  the  measure  of  your  conduct — we  can  not  af 
ford  the  protection  of  the  laws  to  traitors — the  laws  are  silent  in 
the  midst  of  arms — necessity  is  above  all  law — the  safety  of  the 
people  is  the  only  law."  And  these  maxims,  unheard  of  before 
as  American  law,  unheard  of  before  upon  American  hustings,  un 
heard  of  in  the  councils  of  legislation  —  I  need  not  say  never 
dreamed  of  in  the  courts  of  justice — these  maxims  have  in  a  great 
measure  ruled  the  government  in  its  dealing  with  the  existing 
troubles — ruled  the  government,  in  a  great  measure,  in  the  modes 
in  which  it  has  attempted  to  deal  with  the  great  and  terrible  re 
bellion  that  we  are  called  upon  to  suppress — ruled  it,  not  at  its 
own  suggestion  or  inspiration — not  against  the  will  of  the  people ; 
but  the  people  leading  the  government  on,  urging  it  on,  prompt- 


262  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

ing  it,  rejoicing  over  every  arbitrary  act,  calling  for  more  vigorous 
measures,  when  the  vigor  had  already,  in  more  than  one  instance, 
overstepped  the  bounds  of  law ;  seeing  nothing  but  the  enemy 
before  it,  and  supposing  that  enemies  of  law  might  be  subdued  by 
disregard  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  government.  I  do 
not  think  I  have  overstated  the  case. 

Certainly  it  is  not  my  disposition  to  overstate  the  case.  I  do 
not  know  any  one  who  is  more  interested — no  one  here,  certainly, 
is  so  much  interested — in  the  suppression  of  this  rebellion  as  I  am 
personally.  You  see  the  conflagration  from  the  distance;  it  blis 
ters  me  at  my  side.  (Applause.)  You  can  survive  the  integrity 
of  the  nation ;  we  in  Maryland  would  live  on  the  side  of  a  gulf, 
perpetually  tending  to  plunge  into  its  depths.  It  is  for  us  life  and 
liberty — it  is  for  you  greatness,  strength,  and  prosperity. 

If  you  are  interested,  still  more  am  I;  if  illegal  measures  are 
necessary  for  salvation,  I  am  more  tempted  than  you  to  resort  to 
them ;  and  yet  I  desire  to  say  that  there  is  no  circumstance  con 
nected  with  all  the  difficulties  we  are  called  upon  to  deal  with— 
nothing,  in  my  sight,  so  threatening  in  the  future — nothing  which 
I  find  myself  so  unable  satisfactorily  to  contemplate,  as  the  temper 
of  the  public  mind  in  dealing  with  this  great  rebellion.  Not  that 
I  have  any  tenderness  for  the  parricidal  hands  that  have  lifted 
weapons  against  the  heart  of  the  nation — let  them  perish !  (Ap 
plause.)  But  in  their  grave  I  do  not  wish  to  see  American  lib 
erty  buried.  It  is  time  that  the  energy  of  the  nation,  having  now 
been  aroused,  her  embattled  hosts  lining  the  whole  border,  flaming 
with  the  conflict,  by  whose  light  we  read  that  the  nation  will  not 
die  a  dog's  death  and  will  not  perish  of  rottenness  off  the  face  of 
the  earth — it  becomes  us  now  to  turn  our  eyes  to  the  principles 
upon  which  the  contest  is  to  be  waged — to  hold  those  in  author 
ity  responsible,  not  merely  for  energy,  but  for  legality  and  consti 
tutionality- — to  silence  the  sneer  with  which  men  are  met  when 
they  recall  their  rulers  to  the  limits  of  law  and  the  Constitution. 
Let  them  understand  that  the  American  government  will  not  be 
so  degraded  in  the  eyes  of  history  as  to  be  driven  to  the  necessity 
of  inaugurating  revolution  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  insur 
rection.  (Applause.)  % 

They  who  speak  about  extraordinary  methods — of  the  necessity 
of  usurpation — of  the  necessity  of  neglecting  the  "  technicalities  of 
law,"  as  they  politely  term  them — the  necessity  of  departing  from 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  263 

all  "  red-tapeism,"  which  is  the  ordinary  phrase  to  describe  now 
the  regular  operations  of  the  government,  conducted  by  wise  men 
— these  men  must  be  taught  (and  it  is  for  gentlemen  like  you  to 
teach  them)  that  it  does  not  prove  a  man  is  disloyal  because  he 
thinks  the  Constitution  better  than  they  do,  not  only  powerful  in 
peace,  but  powerful  in  war ;  that  its  a3gis  is  not  only  so  broad  as 
to  protect  the  people  in  times  of  peace,  but  in  the  midst  of  civil 
war  the  surest  protection ;  in  the  face  of  national  disaster,  the 
surest  refuge.  (Cheers.) 

Let  us  review  some  of  the  measures  which  have  been  resorted 
to  by  the  government  in  the  name  of  the  suppression  of  the  re 
bellion,  and  with  the  accord  of  the  people,  and  see  where  in  six 
months  we  have  drifted  before  the  storm  of  war.  If  it  is  usurpa 
tion,  it  is  usurpation  against  a  willing  people.  If  it  is  illegal,  it  is 
illegality  prompted  by  the  people.  But  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  acclaim  of  the  people  is  the  most  dangerous  symptom. 

We  have  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  American  republic,  in  the 
midst  of  the  nineteenth  century,  after  more  than  eighty  years  of 
republican  rule,  under  a  plainly- written  Constitution — we  have 
seen  a  republican  administration  assume  the  right  to  declare  and 
execute  martial  law.  We  have  seen  a  military  commander  in 
charge  of  a  great  and  important  district,  within  two  months,  I  be 
lieve,  after  Congress  had  adjourned,  issue  a  proclamation  inaugu 
rating,  formally,  martial  law  over  two  thirds  of  the  State  of  Mis 
souri — threatening  with  death,  at  the  dictation  of  a  drum-head 
court-martial,  any  one  caught  in  arms  within  the  district  pre 
scribed  by  his  will.  We  have  seen  him  assume  the  right  to  dis 
regard  the  act  of  Congress  ere  the  ink  was  fairly  dry  upon  the 
parchment,  and  to  confiscate  property  which  Congress,  by  omit 
ting,  said  could  not  be  confiscated.  We  have  seen  (and  those  who 
have  seen  them  must  have  laughed)  deeds  of  manumission  signed 
"  John  C.  Fremont,  Major  General  Commanding."  (Applause  and 
hisses.  A  cry,  "Three  cheers  for  Fremont!"  and  cries  "for 
shame !") 

Free  speech  exists  where  I  speak.     (Tremendous  applause.) 

I  have  seen  tempestuous  assemblies  before  in  my  day.  Nay, 
more,  I  have  seen,  likewise,  statements  that  three  or  four  freemen 
of  America  have  been  convicted  before  a  court-martial  in  the  State 
of  Missouri,  presided  over  by  a  colonel  of  Illinois  volunteers  — 
that  is  the  judicial  tribunal — convicted  of  being  in  arms  against 


264  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

the  United  States — that  is  treason — and  sentenced  to  hard  labor 
during  the  war. 

The  President,  with  the  advice  of  the  chief  law  officer  of  the 
government — a  gentleman  for  whom  I  entertain,  personally  and 
politically,  the  very  highest  regard — has,  under  the  pressure  of 
the  emergency  of  the  times,  asserted  a  right  in  the  President,  and 
the  President  has  acted  upon  it  in  various  instances,  to  suspend 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  (Applause.)  And  under  this  usurped 
power  the  President  has  arrested  or  allowed  to  be  arrested  many 
freemen  who  were  not  in  arms,  and  had  not  been  in  arms,  against 
the  United  States,  and  therefore  were  not  fit  objects  of  the  mili 
tary  power  vested  in  the  President  by  Congress ;  has  refused  to 
submit  the  causes  of  their  arrest  to  the  judicial  tribunal,  even  in 
New  York,  and  has  incarcerated  them  in  fortresses  that  they  might 
be  out  of  the  way  of  process. 

We  have  seen  a  judge  of  the  highest  court  of  record  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  held  prisoner  in  his  house,  with  a  soldier  march 
ing  up  and  down  before  the  door,  with  bayonet  on  his  shoulder. 
(Cries  of  "  Serve  him  right !  serve  him  right !") 

We  have  not  yet  reached  the  question  whether  it  has  served 
him  right  or  not.  (Applause.)  About  the  fact  there  is  no  doubt; 
that  there  was  no  sworn  statement  against  him,  there  is  no  doubt; 
that  the  ordinary  formalities  of  law  were  not  pursued,  there  is  no 
doubt.  If  he  was  guilty,  let  him  be  punished  by  law ;  if  he  was 
bearing  arms,  or  about  to  bear  arms,  let  it  be  known,  and  the  world 
will  justify  the  act.  (Applause.) 

We  have  seen  likewise  (and  when  we  remember  that  it  is  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  may  very  well  be  startled  at 
the  very  reference),  we  have  seen  at  least  one  newspaper — prob 
ably  more  than  one  newspaper — stopped  because  of  the  character 
of  its  articles.  We  have  seen  more  than  one  newspaper — (they 
do  not  express  my  sentiments)  —  we  have  seen  more  than  one 
newspaper  excluded  from  the  benefit  of  the  mails  without  author 
ity  of  law. 

We  have  seen  a  provost-marshal — the  police-officer  of  a  camp — 
inaugurate  a  civil  court  in  Alexandria,  Va.,  and  (I  presume  I  ad 
dress  not  a  few  of  the  mercantile  gentlemen  of  New  York),  if  the 
papers  have  not  again  misled  me,  I  think  I  saw  a  few  days  ago 
that  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  had  suggested  to  the  President 
that  he  should  vest  authority  in  the  provost-marshal  to  continue 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  265 

that  illegal  and  usurped  jurisdiction.  (Cries  of  "  Good,"  and  ap 
plause.) 

We  have  seen  executed — as  nothing  of  the  kind  has  been  exe 
cuted  in  any  despotic  country  of  Europe,  and  with  a  completeness 
and  precision,  secrecy  and  dispatch,  that  would  have  done  honor 
to  the  chief  of  police  of  France — the  seizure  of  all  the  telegrams 
in  all  the  telegraph  offices,  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the 
American  republic,  I  believe,  in  one  day.  (Loud  applause.) 

We  have  seen,  I  believe,  without  any  authority  of  law — we 
have  seen  an  order  from  the  Secretary  of  State  saying  that  no 
man  shall  leave  the  United  States  without  a  passport — that  is,  by 
his  leave.  (Renewed  applause.) 

Now  these  things  are  not  cast  in  the  teeth  of  any  body,  nor 
stated  for  the  purpose  of  crimination.  I  use  them  historically ;  I 
use  them  for  the  lesson  they  teach ;  I  use  them  to  bring  before 
you,  men  of  America,  where  you  this  day  stand  after  your  repub 
lican  government  has  been  in  full  and  blessed  operation  for  over 
eighty  years. 

These  measures  have  been  executed  without  any  authority  of 
law.  Some  of  them  might  have  been  authorized  by  Congress;  but 
Congress  had  just  adjourned  without  having  authorized  them. 

Over  these  measures  of  the  executive  there  is  a  strange  agree 
ment  between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  government. 

The  enemies  of  the  United  States  have  taken  the  Constitution 
under  their  special  protection,  the  more  easily  to  destroy  it.  They 
deny  the  constitutionality  of  every  measure  for  the  suppression  of 
the  insurrection,  and  confound  the  arbitrary  and  the  legal  in  one 
indiscriminate  outcry  against  usurpation  and  oppression. 

The  friends  of  the  government  apparently  agree  with  them  in 
their  denial  of  the  sufficiency  of  the  Constitution  for  the  crisis,  and 
propose  to  eke  out  its  omissions  by  the  law  of  necessity. 

I  agree  with  neither  of  them.  Both  are  wrong,  and  either  view 
is  equally  fatal  to  the  existence  of  the  government. 

The  Constitution  does  vest  in  Congress  adequate  power  to  sup 
press  every  insurrection. 

The  Constitution  does  not  vest  in  Congress  or  the  President  ar 
bitrary  or  unlimited  power  for  that  or  any  other  purpose.  Now, 
if  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  government  are  not  sufficient  for 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion — I  mean  the  constitutional  powers 
of  the  government,  not  construed  by  the  standard  of  South  Caro- 


266  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

lina,  but  measured  by  the  standard  of  Daniel  Webster,  measured 
by  the  standard  of  Henry  Clay  (applause),  measured  by  the  stand 
ard  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  differs  in  nothing  from  either  of 
those  great  men  (applause) — if  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  does  not  confer  power  upon  the  government  to  deal  with 
a  great  rebellion  like  this,  then,  gentlemen,  I  wish  you  to  draw 
your  conclusion.  Mine  is,  that  the  government  of  George- Wash 
ington  has  failed !  (Hisses,  and  cries  of  "  No !")  If  the  govern 
ment  that  he  founded  can  not  deal  with  the  events  before  it,  it  is 
not  an  inference  of  logic,  it  is  the  verdict  of  history,  it  has  failed. 
(Hisses.)  And  hissing  don't  change  the  verdict.  (Laughter.)  Or 
else  the  hiss  is  to  be  interpreted  in  this  sense — that  the  govern 
ment  has  not  failed,  although  it  does  not  afford  power  to  deal  with 
the  rebellion,  which  yet  it  is  its  duty  to  suppress.  That  argument 
is  worthy  of  a  hiss !  I  say,  gentlemen,  if  the  Constitution  does 
not  furnish  these  powers,  then  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
in  the  face  of  another  revolution.  If  you  can  not  find,  within  the 
limits  of  the  law  written  down,  the  mode  and  method  by  which 
you  are  to  stamp  out  this  rebellion,  by  what  law  is  the  President 
to  be  guided  ? 

A  VOICE.  The  law  of  self-preservation. 

Mr.  DAVIS.  That  is  the  law  of  Louis  Napoleon. 

A  YOICE.  The  law  of  military  power. 

Mr.  DAVIS.  Yes,  the  law  of  Julius  Caesar — the  law  of  the  master 
over  the  slave.  I  do  not  know  what  you  think  of  George  Wash 
ington,  but  I  shall  not  scandalize  his  memory  by  such  a  suggestion 
until,  with  all  the  lights  before  me,  I  shall  have  read  the  law  he 
proposed  for  the  government  of  the  republic,  and  see,  with  the 
light  of  experience,  the  rulings  of  the  courts,  the  opinions  of  great 
men,  and  the  necessities  of  national  life,  whether  we  can  not  find 
on  the  face  of  the  Constitution,  without  making  ourselves  slaves 
(for  it  is  to  be  a  slave  to  be  bound  to  obey  the  will  of  any  body 
beyond  the  limits  of  law),  a  republican  way  to  preserve  at  once 
the  nation  and  the  liberties  of  the  people.  (Applause.) 

And  I  say,  in  the  first  place,  that  martial  law,  whatever  else  is 
allowed — and  while,  in  my  judgment,  the  authority  vested  in  the 
United  States,  applied  in  its  proper  forms  and  described  by  its  con 
stitutional  language,  is  ample — I  say  that  martial  law,  in  any  sense 
in  which  it  is  known  to  the  history  of  the  world,  is  something 
which  is  excluded  from  our  system,  and  which  we  ourselves  and 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  267 

our  forefathers  have  been  careful  to  exclude,  because  an  arbitrary 
exercise  of  discretion  could  not  be  safely  vested  any  where  in  our 
government.  Why,  what  is  martial  law  ?  The  people  are  all  of 
them  crying  out  for  martial  law.  If  they  mean  the  direction  of 
military  power  against  armed  opposition — the  direction  of  the 
military  power  to  disperse  military  resistance — why  don't  they 
use  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  and  speak  of  "calling  out 
the  militia  to  suppress  the  insurrection  ?"  But  if  they  use  the 
words  "martial  law,"  men  of  the  sword  will  interpret  it  in  the 
only  sense  in  which  it  is  known  to  the  history  of  the  world ;  and 
Wellington  has  defined  it,  "It  is  the  will  of  the  commander-in- 
chief."  Does  the  President,  of  his  will,  possess  the  power  to  de 
clare,  to  inaugurate,  or  to  enact  martial  law?  Unless  it  is  the 
perpetual  law  of  the  republic,  it  can  not  be  enacted  by  him,  nor 
declared  by  him,  nor  declared  by  any  body  that  he  may  authorize 
to  declare  it,  because  the  Constitution  says — and  this  is  a  war  for 
the  Constitution  as  well  as  for  the  Union — the  Constitution  says 
that  "all  legislative  power  herein  granted  is  vested  in  Congress." 
Then  the  President  can  not  proclaim  it.  Can  Congress  proclaim 
it  ?  Why,  what  is  martial  law  ?  Mere  will,  limited  by  no  defini 
tion — controlled  by  nothing  except  the  will  of  the  commander-in- 
chief— his  discretion  under  the  circumstances — his  determination 
to  allow  and  to  forbid  any  thing — the  right  to  judge  people  by 
court-martial— the  right  to  order  men  to  be  shot  down  by  a  file 
of  soldiers  for  wearing  a  red  and  white  cravat — the  right  to  dis 
regard  the  limits  of  the  Constitution.  It  is  blind  fate.  It  is  en 
acted  at  the  dictation  of  necessity,  and  necessity  owns  no  law.  It 
is  proclaimed  in  the  name  of  the  public  safety — it  is  the  annihila 
tion  of  every  guarantee  of  the  public  liberty.  With  us  our  Con 
stitution,  framed  by  George  Washington,  is  the  great  safeguard 
of  the  country.  The  safety  of  the  people  is  the  supreme  law; 
but  that  Constitution  is  the  safety  of  the  people — the  Constitution 
is  that  supreme  law.  Above  it  there  is  no  necessity,  beyond  it 
there  is  no  law,  outside  of  it  there  is  no  security.  That  Constitu 
tion  does  not  use  the  word  martial  law.  It  does  not  vest  author 
ity  to  declare  martial  law  any  where,  in  any  body,  under  any  cir 
cumstances.  It  professes  to  provide  for  every  necessity  of  na 
tional  life,  and  it  forbids  martial  law ;  for  it  forbids  arbitrary  tri 
als,  it  forbids  any  conviction  for  crime  but  by  a  jury,  any  trial 
but  before  the  judges  and  courts  it  has  provided,  yet  martial  law 


268  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

has  tried  freemen  for  treason  by  a  court-martial.  It  forbids  arbi 
trary  confiscations  of  property,  yet  martial  law  has  already  exe 
cuted  arbitrary  confiscations.  It  forbids  arbitrary  invasions  of 
the  right  of  personal  freedom,  yet  men  who  had  offended  against 
no  law  noiv  are  held  by  martial  law,  and  in  spite  of  the  law  of 
the  land. 

Yet  the  Constitution  has  not  overlooked  grave  crises  such  as 
that  we  are  now  passing  through.  It  provides,  under  proper 
sanctions  and  with  proper  limitations,  for  such  emergencies ;  but 
it  carefully  forbids  this  arbitrary  discretion,  which  British  freemen 
found  incompatible  with  their  safety  in  the  hands  of  the  king,  and 
which  our  fathers  knew  would  be  fatal  to  our  liberty  in  the  hands 
of  the  President,  and  too  dangerous  to  be  intrusted  even  to  the 
discretion  of  Congress.  They  knew  what  martial  law  was,  for 
they  rebelled  against  it  as  their  English  ancestors  had. 

Martial  law  is  not  now  for  the  first  time  supposed  to  be  neces 
sary  ;  it  has  been  often  imposed  under  that  pretext  in  the  old 
home  of  liberty,  and  there  it  has  been  repealed  by  arms  and  for 
bidden  by  laws  written  in  royal  blood.  Martial  law  had  been 
thought  necessary  to  prevent  the  dispersion  of  papal  bulls  or  trai 
torous  libels  against  the  queen.  It  had  been  thought  necessary 
for  the  suppression  of  sundry  great  unlawful  assemblies,  that  such 
notable  rebellious  persons  be  speedily  suppressed  by  execution 
of  death,  according  to  the  justice  of  martial  law;  and  Charles  I. 
had  thought  it  necessary  for  his  purposes  to  issue  commissions  to 
try  not  only  soldiers,  but  other  dissolute  persons  who  might  com 
mit  murder  or  other  outrage  or  misdemeanor  whatever — just  as 
Fremont  thought  it  necessary  for  the  quiet  of  Missouri  to  sup 
press  such  outrages — by  the  justice  of  martial  law.  But  the  Com 
mons  of  England,  by  the  Petition  of  Eight,  compelled  the  revoca 
tion  of  such  commissions,  and  forbade  them  for  the  future,  because 
no  man  ought  to  be  "judged  to  death  but  by  the  laws  established 
in  the  realm.''1  And  our  fathers  were  fresh  in  this  history  when 
they  formed  our  Constitution,  and  incorporated  among  its  solemn 
enactments  these  great  prohibitions  of  arbitrary  power  which  is 
the  spirit  of  martial  law. 

The  Commons  of  England  had  prohibited  to  the  crown  the  arbi 
trary  right  to  seize  the  property  of  the  subject,  or  withdraw  his 
personal  liberty  from  the  cognizance  of  the  courts  even  on  a  com 
mitment  by  the  special  command  of  the  king,  or  to  try  him  by 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  2G9 

commission  of  martial  law,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  land ;  and 
our  fathers  took  from  that  petition  their  great  safeguards,  and 
placed  them  beyond  and  above  even  the  legislative  will  of  Con 
gress. 

The  Constitution  declares  that  the  "judicial  power  shall  be 
vested  in  our  Supreme  Court,  or  in  such  inferior  cou-rts  as  Con 
gress  may  ordain." 

The  President,  then,  can't  establish  courts-martial. 

"  The  judges  of  loth  the  Supreme  and  inferior  courts  shall  hold 
their  offices  during  good  behavior." 

Neither  Congress  nor  the  President,  then,  can  make  a  military 
officer  a  judge  during  will,  nor  a  provost-marshal  a  civil  court. 

"  The  judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases  under  the  Consti 
tution  and  laws." 

The  courts  of  law,  therefore,  alone  can  take  cognizance  of  any 
crime  against  the  United  States. 

"  The  trial  of  all  crimes,  except  in  case  of  impeachment,  shall 
be  by  jury." 

An  Illinois  colonel  can  not,  therefore,  try  any  one  for  any 
crime. 

"  No  one  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise  in 
famous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand 
jury,  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  and  naval  service.'1'1 

A  man  can  not  then  be  tried  by  any  court-martial,  unless  a  sol 
dier  or  sailor ;  and  Congress  is  especially  authorized  to  make  rules 
for  the  government  and  regulation  of  the  land  and  naval  forces  ; 
and  but  for  this,  no  soldier  could  be  tried  otherwise  than  by  a 
court  of  law. 

"Congress  shall  make  no  law  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech 
or  of  the  press." 

Even  Congress  is  prohibited  from  suppressing  any  newspaper ; 
how  can  the  executive  claim  the  right  ? 

The  fathers  of  the  Constitution  assumed  that  the  habeas  corpus 
would  protect  our  liberties ;  but  they  were  unwilling  to  leave  that 
to  the  discretion  of  Congress,  and  they  therefore  made  it  perpetual 
by 'prohibiting  its  suspension  even,  except  when  in  cases  of  rebel 
lion  or  invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it. 

Congress  has  not  suspended  it ;  it  is  therefore  the  right  of  every 
man  confined  contrary  to  law. 

It  is  perhaps  to  be  regretted  that  Congress  did  not  at  its  late 


270  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

session  suspend  that  writ  in  a  portion  of  the  United  States,  and 
give  the  President  a  wider  power  of  arrest  than  the  laws  now 
allow — subject  to  such  safeguards  as  might  protect  innocent  peo 
ple  from  vexatious,  or  mistaken,  or  malicious  arrests ;  but  Con 
gress  thought  otherwise,  and  that  confined  the  President  to  the 
limits  of  the  military  power  conferred  on  him  for  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion,  and  that  extends  only  to  persons  in  arms,  or 
those  actively  aiding  and  abetting  them  against  the  government. 
Such  persons  are  liable  to  arrest  by  military  authority  under  the 
law  of  Congress.  Every  one  else  is  amenable  only  to  the  judicial 
tribunals  and  under  judicial  forms. 

These  provisions  exclude  martial  law  and  all  arbitrary  discre 
tion — all  exceptional  and  temporary  tribunals — all  executive 
power  over  the  liberty  of  the  citizen. 

If  the  government  can  not  meet  the  necessities  of  the  time  with 
out  transcending  these  limits,  then  American  republicanism  has 
failed. 

If  a  discretionary  power  over  the  liberty  of  the  citizen,  or  a 
right  to  try  him  by  exceptional  tribunals  is  to  be  tolerated,  then 
we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  more  dangerous  revolution  than  the  one 
we  have  undertaken  to  suppress. 

We  have  abandoned  the  attempt  to  reconcile  liberty  with  a  gov 
ernment  of  law,  national  existence  with  the  supremacy  of  law ;  we 
have  been  driven  to  invoke  the  principle  of  executive  discretion 
in  the  last  resort,  and  at  its  will  to  suspend  every  guarantee  writ 
ten  down  in  the  Constitution  to  protect  the  liberty  of  the  indi 
vidual  against  executive  power. 

If  it  were  clear  that  the  national  existence  demands  this  sacri 
fice,  while  it  might  be  yielded,  it  would  be  not  the  less  certain 
that  our  system  of  government  has  failed. 

But  if  it  be  not  so  demanded,  and  yet  the  people  from  negli 
gence,  or  indolence,  or  weariness  of  the  perpetual  demands  on 
their  time  and  attention  for  the  actual  conduct  of  the  government 
by  law  and  on  its  own  principles,  tolerate  or  invite  these  intru 
sions  of  arbitrary  will  on  the  domains  of  law — whether  those  in 
trusions  result  from  the  indifference  of  those  in  power,  or  their 
obedience  to  popular  clamor,  then  it  is  not  less  certain  that  our 
government  has  failed  in  fact — failed  because  the  people  lacked 
republican  spirit,  energy,  and  vigilance. 

And  if  this  system  of  law  have  failed,  there  is  but  one  alterna- 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  271 

live.  "We  pass  from  the  constitutional  freedom  of  America  to 
the  democratic  despotism  of  France.  To  that  all  free  government 
tends  in  this  age.  Only  England  and  the  United  States  have 
avoided  it  of  all  modern  free  nations,  and  they  have  done  so  be 
cause  their  liberty  was  organized  in  institutions  approved  by  ex 
perience,  improved  by  reason,  and  adhered  to  by  inveterate  habit 
and  national  pride.  Those  institutions  exclude  every  element  of 
arbitrary  power,  and  define  by  law  the  rights  and  duties  of  every 
man ;  and  when  those  laws  are  abandoned,  we  become  as  France 
is.  Necessity  will  be  the  supreme  law — the  President  its  supreme 
interpreter — its  only  rule  his  will — his  only  limit  what  he  thinks 
the  people  will  bear.  He  will  still  speak  in  their  name,  but  he 
will  not  execute  their  written  will,  but  what  he  divines  to  be 
theirs. 

This  is  democratic  government,  but  it  is  not  American  trepublic- 
anism.  It  is  the  system  now  being  inaugurated  by  the  connivance 
or  the  blindness  of  the  people. 

We  are  treading  the  path  of  the  Eoman  republic,  the  history  of 
whose  freedom  is  unconsciously  summed  up  in  a  single  paragraph 
of  Justinian's  Institutes,  defining  the  sources  of  Eoman  law.  Its 
whole  history  is  there  from  the  day  of  its  vigor  and  vigilance, 
when  the  law  was  the  only  rule  of  action,  down  to  its  day  of  las 
situde  and  corruption,  when  the  weary  people  had  accepted  the 
will  of  the  prince  as  their  only  law. 

Lex  est  quod  populus  Romanus,  senatorio  magistratu  interrogante, 
veluti  consule,  constituebat. 

Plebiscitum  est  quod  Plebs,  plebeio  magistratu  interrogante,  veluti 
Tribuno,  constituebat. 

Senatus  consultum  est  quod  senatus  jubet  atque  constituit.  Nam- 
quum  auctus  est  populus  Romanus  in  eum  modum  ut  difficile  esset  in 
unum  eum  convocari  legis  sanciendce  causa,  wqum  visum  est  SEISTA- 

TUS  VICE  POPULI  CONSULI. 

Sed  ct  quod  Principi  placuit  legis  habet  vigorem,  cum  LEG-E  REGIA, 
qucB  de  ejus  imperio  lata  est,  POPULUS  HoMANUS  ei  et  in  eum  omne 
imperium  suum  et  potestatem  CONCESSIT  ! ! 

We  have  taken  our  first  steps  in  this  downward  road.  The 
last  six  months  have  laid  up  a  mass  of  dangerous  precedents  for 
future  ambition.  And  after  your  and  my  day,  when  our  children 
shall  have  inherited  the  soil  without  the  institutions  of  their 
fathers — when  it  shall  have  become  the  settled  conviction  that  the 


272  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

Constitution  is  made  for  times  of  peace,  that  necessity  is  para 
mount  to  its  prohibitions,  that  the  President's  discretion  is  the 
judge  of  the  necessity  and  of  the  measures  required  to  meet  it, 
the  learned  jurist  of  some  American  Justinian  will  enumerate  as 
of  the  past  the  old  sources  of  the  law  of  the  republic — the  Consti 
tution  and  the  laws  passed  in  pursuance  thereof  by  Congress— 
but  will  tell  us  that  the  frequent  necessities  of  the  case,  the  de 
fects  of  the  written  law,  the  inconvenience  of  consulting  Congress 
— the  greater  convenience  of  presidential  rescripts,  epistles,  edicts 
made  for  the  emergency,  in  the  confidence  that  the  people  will 
approve  them — these  have  become  the  settled  substitutes  for  con 
stitutional  legislation ;  and  he  will  close  his  summary  by  those 
significant  words : 

"SED  ID  quod  President! placuit  legis  Jidbet  vigorem! I" 

We  are  taking  our  first  steps  toward  that  dark  cavern  into 
which  the  steps  of  all  free  nations  before  us  have  strayed,  and 
from  which  only  a  few  have  ever  returned,  and  they  seared  by 
the  fires  of  revolution  and  scarred  by  the  chains  of  their  servi 
tude. 

These  dire  calamities  we  may  avoid  if  we  resolutely  adhere  to 
the  limits  of  the  Constitution. 

Let  us  appreciate  the  vast  difficulties  with  which  the  adminis 
tration  is  called  to  struggle ;  let  us  not  judge  harshly  their  errors ; 
let  us  accord  them  a  generous  confidence  ;  but  let  us  require  them 
to  grapple  with  the  difficulties  according  to  law — forbid  their 
recurrence  to  discretionary  devices — rigidly  repel  usurpation  un 
der  any  pretext,  at  any  instigation,  even  that  of  the  people  them 
selves. 

Consistently  with  our  Constitution  there  can  be  no  such  thing 
as  martial  law. 

Has  the  Constitution,  then,  omitted  or  excluded  any  thing  nec 
essary  to  carry  the  republic  through  this  great  crisis  ? 

Let  us  turn  to  its  arsenal,  and  survey  its  arms. 

We  make  the  war  in  the  name  of  the  Constitution ;  that  Con 
stitution  provides  that  Congress  shall  guarantee  to  each  State  of 
the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government.  Wicked  men  in 
all  the  seceded  States  have  flown  in  the  face  of  that  great  funda 
mental  law,  and  violated  the  fundamental  principle  of  all  repub 
lican  government,  and  inaugurated  governments  in  defiance  of  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land.  It  is  the  case  in  which  the  Congress 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  273 

of  the  United  States — not  by  the  law  of  necessity,  not  by  the  law 
of  self-preservation,  not  for  the  safety  of  the  people,  not  because 
the  President  or  the  people  think  it  advisable,  but  according  to 
the  written  law  of  the  land — are  bound  to  intervene  with  all  their 
powers  of  every  kind,  and  guarantee  to  the  people  of  those  States, 
loyal  or  rebel,  a  republican  government,  controlling  the  people 
under  the  forms  of  law ;  and  Chief  Justice  Taney  and  the  Supreme 
Court  have  told  us  so. 

"Unquestionably,"  they  say,  "a  military  government  estab 
lished  as  the  permanent  government  of  a  State  would  not  be  a  re- 
publican  government,  and  it  would  be  the  duty  of  CONGRESS  to 
overthrow  it" 

It  is  therefore  the  duty  of  Congress  now  to  OVERTHROW  the 
usurping  governments  in  ten  rebellious  States.  And  how  should 
it  be  done?  Congress  is  vested  with  power  to  call  forth  the  mil 
itia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union  and  to  suppress  insurrec 
tion,  as  well  as  to  repel  invasion.  The  critical  gentlemen  who  im 
peach  the  authority  of  the  government  to  use  force,  acutely  dis 
tinguish  between  the  rebellion  in  the  Southern  States  and  an  in 
surrection.  That  is  done  under  the  authority  of  State  sovereignty  ; 
it  is  done  at  the  bidding  of  sovereigns,  and  therefore  it  is  not  in 
surrection.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  all  laws 
made  in  pursuance  thereof,  are  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  any 
thing  in  the  Constitution  or  the  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  Let  them  be  as  sovereign  as  they  please,  when 
they  pass  an  ordinance  of  secession  it  falls  before  that  sovereign 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  and  is  so  much  waste  paper.  (Ap 
plause.)  Their  laws  are  the  acts  of  a  mob,  transcending  the  lim 
its  of  their  power,  and  flying  in  the  face  of  the  supreme  govern 
ment  of  the  land.  If  that  be  supreme,  they  are  subordinate.  If 
Congress  is  to  declare  the  supreme  law,  the  Ordinance  of  Seces 
sion  is  an  inferior  law.  If  the  judges  are  to  be  bound  by  the  laws 
of  Congress,  any  thing  in  the  Constitution  or  laws  of  the  States  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding,  then  the  judges  are  bound  to  annul 
and  disregard  the  Ordinance  of  Secession,  and  Congress  is  bound 
to  interfere  the  moment  a  State  attempts  to  override  the  supreme 
law  of  the  republic.  And  how?  By  authorizing  the  President 
to  use  the  military  power  of  the  republic  to  compel  the  submission 
of  its  enemies,  and  by  such  reasonable  penalties  and  forfeitures  as 
will  not  exasperate  and  indurate  the  hostile  population.  The 

S 


274:  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

President,  of  himself,  has  no  power  to  do  any  thing.  He  is  the 
executor  of  the  laws.  He  has  authority  to  command  the  army 
when  the  army  exists,  but  it  can  only  exist  by  the  law  of  Con 
gress.  He  is  directed  to  see  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed, 
but  he  can  execute  no  law  until  it  exists.  Until  the  laws  give 
him  authority  to  act,  he  has  just  as  much  power  as  you  or  I.  He 
is  not  our  master.  He  has  no  discretion  vested  in  him.  He  is 
bound  by  the  limitations  of  the  law.  What  that  allows  him  to 
do,  he  can  do ;  what  it  does  not  allow  him  to  do,  he  can  not  do. 
That  is  the  principle  of  our  republican  government.  That  is  the 
example  set  by  "Washington.  He  was  compelled  to  suppress  the 
Whisky  Insurrection,  and  he  did  it  in  spite  of  the  imperfection  of 
the  law,  but  according  to  law ;  yet  there  are  some  people  who 
think  that  George  Washington  did  not  make  a  government  that 
would  conduct  us  through  an  insurrection.  The  law  of  1795  was 
passed  in  his  administration  and  at  his  instance,  he  having  found 
in  the  Whisky  Eebellion  in  Pennsylvania  that  the  preceding  laws 
upon  the  statute-book  were  inadequate  for  the  purpose.  Has  any 
historical  gentleman  here  present  ever  heard  that  Washington 
thought  the  inadequacy  of  the  law  a  sufficient  reason  for  usurping 
a  power  which  the  Constitution  did  not  grant  ?  ISTo ;  he  did  the 
best  he  could.  He  bewailed  the  inefficiency  of  the  existing  law, 
but  he  did  not  venture  to  supply  it  by  the  law  of  the  public  safe 
ty,  by  his  own  ideas  of  the  public  necessity,  by  usurpation.  There 
would  have  been  no  difficulty  then,  if  usurpation  could  always 
supply  a  deficiency.  But  he,  the  great  Father  and  founder  of  the 
Constitution,  went  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Eepresentatives, 
and  laid  before  them,  in  his  formal  message,  the  deficiency  of  the 
law  under  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  struggle  with  the  rebel 
lion  which  then  threatened  tfce  existence  of  the  national  republic 
as  much  as  this  threatens  its  existence,  and  begged  them  to  re 
lieve  his  successors  from  the  embarrassment  to  which  he  had  been 
subjected.  And  they  did  it.  They  who  impeach  Mr.  Lincoln 
for  usurpation  shut  their  eyes  to  that  law.  They  who  say  that 
the  government  has  no  legal  authority  to  use  military  power  to 
suppress  the  rebellion,  overlook  that  law.  I  read  to-day  the  mes 
sage  of  the  self-styled  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  in  which 
he  audaciously  says  that  the  President  has  made  war  upon  them 
without  the  authority  of  Congress.  And  that  very  man,  when  he 
was  Secretary  of  War,  under  that  very  law  of  1795,  organized 
those  infernal  proceedings  in  Kansas. 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  275 


What  has  Congress  done  ?  If  it  has  not  done  enough,  it 
meet  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  and  may  do  more.  If  it  has 
omitted  important  measures,  it  can  supply  deficiencies.  But  what 
it  has  authorized  up  to  this  time  is  the  limit  of  what  it  is  allow 
able  for  the  executive  power  to  do.  It  has  passed  a  law  confisca 
ting  part  of  the  property  of  rebels,  and  therefore  nobody  has  the 
right  to  confiscate  all  their  property.  Be  it  right  or  wrong,  wise 
or  unwise,  it  is  not  in  the  law,  and  therefore  it  is  forbidden.  It 
has  authorized,  and  in  my  judgment  wisely,  the  confiscation  of 
property  used  to  promote  rebellion,  and  there  it  stops  —  there  the 
President  is  bound  to  stop  —  there  the  military  commanders  are 
bound  to  stop,  whether  on  a  foraging  party  or  otherwise.  That 
is  the  impassable  limit  of  their  power.  It  has  enacted  that  there 
shall  be  a  blockade  of  the  Southern  coast,  a  cessation  of  commer 
cial  intercourse.  That  is  the  greatest  stretch  of  power  that  Con 
gress  has  undertaken  to  exercise  touching  this  subject.  In  my 
judgment,  it  is  within  its  full  competency.  In  my  judgment,  it 
was  necessary  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  purpose  of  pre 
venting  military  and  other  supplies  from  reaching  men  in  arms. 
It  doubtless  bears  hardly  on  the  loyal  men  of  the  South,  who 
swarm  there,  as  I  am  proud  to  know,  by  thousands,  but  disarmed, 
and  therefore  powerless.  (Applause.)  And  I  know  that,  while 
they  feel  the  privations,  they  submit  cheerfully  to  the  restriction, 
for  over  the  glare  of  the  conflagration  they  still  see  the  dawn  of 
the  coming  day  of  liberty.  (Applause.)  These  are  two  things 
that  Congress  has  done.  What  else  has  it  done  ?  Placed  a  mag 
nificent  army  at  the  disposal  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  charged  to  guarantee  a  republican  government  to  those 
who  now  no  longer  know  its  blessings,  and  to  extinguish  the  last 
spark  of  rebellion. 

Is  that  army  an  idle  pageant  —  a  holiday  parade,  or  may  it  smite 
with  the  sword  it  bears  ? 

The  law  is  the  only  criterion  ;  the  law  assembles  it  —  the  law 
defines  its  rights  and  duties. 

Obedience  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  is  all  the  government  has 
a  right  to  demand. 

If  individuals  refuse  obedience,  the  courts,  and  juries,  and  mar 
shals  will  compel  it. 

If  numbers  combine  to  resist,  the  law  vests  the  marshal  with 
the  right  to  summon  the  power  of  the  county  to  dispel  the  array. 


276  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

Bat  when  the  unlawful  combination  swells  into  insurrection, 
and  overmatches  and  defies  the  marshal  and  his  powers,  is  the 
government  to  submit?  When  the  ordinary  civil,  judicial,  and 
legal  modes  of  proceeding  have  failed,  the  enemies  of  the  govern 
ment  say  that  it  must  stand  with  its  hands  by  its  side  and  see  it 
self  torn  limbless.  But  does  the  law  say  that  because  the  courts 
can  render  no  assistance  they  can  not  be  opened  ?  On  the  con 
trary,  when  they  have  been  closed,  then  the  law  lifts  the  banner 
of  the  republic,  draws  the  sword,  and,  still  waiting  and  giving  its 
erring  children  time  for  repentance,  forbids  the  use  of  the  drawn 
sword  till  the  President  shall  have  issued  his  proclamation  direct 
ing  the  unlawful  combinations — not  seceded  States,  but  unlawful 
combinations  of  men  too  strong  to  be  dispersed  by  the  marshal — 
to  go  to  their  respective  homes.  And  that  Abraham  Lincoln  did. 
(Applause.)  And  when  they  did  not  go  to  their  respective  homes, 
when  all  the  stages  of  republican  forbearance  had  been  passed, 
when  all  the  forms  of  law  had  been  duly  invoked,  and  the  last 
remedy  was  all  that  remained,  he  solemnly  put  forth  his  procla 
mation,  and  by  the  written  law  of  the  land  called  the  children  of 
the  republic  to  its  defense — and  they  answered  by  the  million. 
(Applause.)  ISTow,  what  are  they  charged  to  do  ?  What  is  the 
reason  that  military  force  is  allowed  at  all?  Because  the  civil 
process  has  been  overborne.  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  military 
force  ?  To  disperse  armed  opposition,  that  arrests  the  progress  of 
the  marshal,  that  closes  the  court  of  justice,  silences  the  judge  on 
the  bench,  and  renders  impossible  the  ordinary  and  peaceful  en 
forcement  of  the  law.  And  what  do  you  want  the  army  to  do? 
To  hunt  peaceful  people,  quietly  residing  at  home,  whom  a  mar 
shal  with  a  writ  can  arrest?  Are  six  hundred  thousand  men, 
your  sons  and  brothers,  in  arms  for  that  ?  How  wretchedly  inad 
equate  is  the  cause  !  For  what,  then  !  It  is  to  scatter  the  array 
of  armed  men ;  it  is  to  break  down  a  combination  of  armed  force 
—to  break  the  military  power  arrayed  against  the  republic.  When 
that  is  broken,  what  stands  between  the  marshal  and  the  person 
that  the  law  would  punish  ?  The  right  to  draw  the  sword  comes 
from  the  fact  that  the  law  is  arrested.  The  sword  must  go  into 
its  scabbard  when  the  law  no  longer  meets  with  opposition  beyond 
the  power  of  the  marshal  to  disperse  it.  This  is  not  martial  law ; 
it  is  the  solemn  written  law  of  the  republic  that  armed  men  shall 
meet  armed  men — that  thev  who  lift  the  banner  of  rebellion  shall 


FOR  EEPEESSION  OF  REBELLION.  277 

be  met  by  the  banner  of  the  republic — that  they  who  appeal  to 
arms  shall  be  met  in  arms.  And  then  when  they  quote  to  you, 
as  they  do,  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  that  no  person  shall 
be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law, 
I  reply  that  against  those  in  arms  against  the  government  the 
bayonet  is  the  process  of  law.  (Applause.)  A  bullet  speeds  on 
its  mission  just  as  legally  as  the  marshal  with  his  writ.  (Ap 
plause.)  The  order  to  fire  on  men  arrayed  against  the  govern 
ment  is  as  much  the  language  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  as  the  order  of  the  marshal  to  arrest  the  man  named  in  his 
process.  (Applause.)  Let  them  disperse  if  they  do  not  wish  to 
be  dispersed,  and  if  they  will  not  disperse  when  commanded,  then 
they  draw  the  fire  of  the  government — they  call  down  its  thunder 
upon  their  heads — they  necessitate  an  appeal  to  the  sword.  Let 
them  who  draw  it  perish  by  it.  (Applause.)  "Why  talk  about 
that  word  which  is  unheard  of  in  republican  lands,  but  is  the  home 
companion'of  the  despots  of  Europe — martial  law ;  a  state  of  siege 
— the  will  of  the  commander — the  necessity  of  dooming  people  to 
death  after  they  have  been  arrested  by  the  military  authority, 
because  vengeance  can  not  wait  the  lagging  process  of  trial? 
When  the  military  array  is  dispersed,  they  no  longer  present  op 
position  to  the  enforcement  of  the  laws ;  the  necessity  of  the  mili 
tary  force  ceases  with  the  dispersion ;  the  right  to  use  it  ceases 
with  the  necessity ;  the  necessity  is  limited  by  the  language  of 
the  law  to  combinations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  or 
dinary  processes  of  law.  That  is  the  true,  legal,  and  constitutional' 
position.  Is  it  not  better  to  keep  to  the  statute-book  and  the 
Constitution,  than  to  insult  the  memory  of  Washington  by  suppo 
sing  that  the  machinery  of  his  government  has  failed  on  its  first 
trial? 

And  when  the  army  is  assembled,  what  may  it  rightfully  do  ? 
Is  it  subject  to  the  caprice  of  private  owners  for  ground  to  en 
camp  on,  for  positions  to  fortify,  for  fields  to  fight  on  ?  Must  it 
confine  its  march  to  the  public  highways?  stop  to  pay  toll? 
(Laughter.)  Ask  leave  to  trespass  on  a  gentleman's  ground  be 
fore  it  ventures  to  deploy  against  an  advancing  foe  ?  Is  it  to  as 
sess  damages  for  treading  down  grass  before  it  can  throw  up  a 
breastwork  to  protect  it  from  an  advancing  foe  ?  If  the  Legisla 
ture  repeal,  or  the  company  surrender  the  charter  for  the  road,  is 
the  force  stationary,  or  driven  to  violate  the  right  of  property 


278  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

which  the  Constitution  so  formally  guarantees?  So  argue  the 
enemies  of  the  republic  who  profess  to  be  the  friends  of  the  Con 
stitution,  but  their  argument  displays  their  ignorance  only. 

The  same  right  which  takes  land  for  a  railway  track  against  the 
owner's  will  subjects  the  whole  territory  to  the  burden  of  war  at 
the  will  of  the  military  authority.  It  is  not  a  violation  of  a  pri 
vate  right' — it  is  the  assertion  of  the  right  of  eminent  domain  over 
the  national  territory.  Is  the  authority  to  take  a  man's  prop 
erty  for  a  railway  more  imperative  than  that  which  allows  the 
government  to  defend  itself  against  military  power  ?  Before  the 
supreme  right  of  the  government  to  wage  war — foreign  or  domes 
tic —  State  lines  are  obliterated  (applause),  every  division  of  pri 
vate  property  is  obliterated,  every  individual  right  is  subordina 
ted.  It  is  the  right  of  eminent  domain  of  the  republic,  asserted 
in  time  of  war  by  the  highest  political  authority,  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  The  right  to  use  military  force  granted  in 
the  Constitution  must  find  its  interpretation  in  the  laws  of  tactics 
and  strategy,  of  projectiles  and  defenses  against  them,  the  formal 
evolutions  of  troops  on  the  march  and  on  the  battle-field,  for  these 
things  are  loar  ;  these  things  are  the  employment  of  military  force; 
these  things  are  what  they  meant  who  framed  the  Constitution. 
Every  political  authority  so  construes  the  Constitution,  and  the 
judicial  agrees  with  the  political  department  of  the  government. 
The  Supreme  Court,  in  sustaining  the  appeal  to  arms  by  Ehode 
Island,  said,  "It  was  a  state  of  war,  and  the  established  govern 
ment  resorted  to  the  rights  and  usages  of  war  to  maintain  itself, 
and  to  overcome  the  unlawful  opposition." 

The  same  principle  vests  a  military  commander  with  the  right 
to  seize  personal  property  for  the  use  of  the  government  on  sud 
den  and  pressing  emergencies,  when  recourse  can  not  be  had  to 
public  supplies — a  right  which  Butler  exercised  when  he  seized 
the  Annapolis  railway. 

He  may  destroy  property  to  prevent  it  falling  into  the  enemy's 
hands,  even  when  he  could  not  take  it  for  his  own  use. 

But  beyond  these  and  the  like  cases,  private  property  of  the 
citizen,  loyal  or  disloyal,  is  as  sacred  in  civil  war  as  in  foreign 
war  or  in  peace.  Eebellion  gives  no  rights  of  robbery ;  but  Con 
gress  may  legalize  confiscation — it  is  not  a  right  of  war,  it  is  a 
penalty  attached  to  crime. 

But  the  right  to  seize  and  hold  persons  in  arms,  or  aiding  and 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  279 

abetting  them,  is  a  right  involved  in  the  right  to  use  military 
force.  On  that  the  political  authority  and  the  judicial  authority 
agree. 

"In  that  state  of  things,"  say  the  Supreme  Court  (in  a  state  of 
civil  war),  "  the  officers  engaged  in  its  military  service  might  law 
fully  arrest  any  one  who,  from  the  information  before  them,  they 
had  reasonable  grounds  to  believe  ivas  engaged  in  the  insurrection." 

But  when  arrested,  is  he  to  be  discharged  at  the  bidding  of  any 
judge  on  a  habeas  corpus?  and  can  that  be  prevented  only  by  ad 
mitting  the  President's  right  to  suspend  it?  On  whom  does  the 
Constitution  confer  the  right  to  suspend  it?  War  does  not  sus 
pend  it.  Can  the  President?  Blackstone  says  that  in  England  it 
is  suspended  only  by  act  of  Parliament.  The  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
so  far  as  it  is  applicable,  is  issued  under  the  language  of  the  stat 
ute,  and  as  long  as  the  act  is  on  the  statute-book,  there  is  no  power 
in  the  United  States  that  can  arrest  the  progress  of  the  writ,  ex 
cept  in  Congress,  which  may  repeal  or  suspend  the  privilege  for 
the  time  being.  Where  do  they  get  the  authority  ?  If  it  were 
not  prohibited  therein  specifically,  it  would  result  from  their  right 
to  repeal  a  statute  which  they  had  enacted.  You  need  go  no 
farther  than  that.  But  the  Constitution  was  careful  to  secure  to 
us  the  right  to  the  writ  paramount  to  the  will  of  Congress,  except 
in  cases  of  invasion  and  rebellion,  where  the  public  safety  might 
require  its  suspension.  When,  therefore,  those, circumstances  oc 
cur,  that  writ  ought  to  be  suspended.  In  my  judgment,  it  was  a 
serious  oversight  or  neglect  in  Congress  at  the  last  session  not  to 
have  suspended  it  in  some  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  in  re 
spect  of  some  classes  of  persons.  They  did  not  do  it ;  that  is  their 
fault.  But  that  does  not  vest  any  right  to  supply  their  omission 
in  the  head  of  the  executive  department  of  the  government.  On 
this  great  topic  the  bar  of  the  United  States  has  been  smitten  with 
barrenness  or  vertigo.  Only  one  discussion  of  it  worthy  of  the 
subject  and  the  bar  has  met  my  eye,  and  that  was  from  the  justly 
distinguished  Professor  Parker,  of  Harvard  University.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted  that  so  distinguished  a  jurist  should  have 
dropped  an  ambiguous  doubt  of  the  President's  right  to  suspend 
the  writ — that  is,  to  repeal  an  act  of  Congress !  Blackstone  denies 
the  right  to  the  crown;  Story  confines  the  right  to  Congress. 
But  no  one  has  quoted  the  solemn  judgment  of  John  Marshall — 
a  man  of  some  repute  in  his  day,  and  not  entirely  without  weight 


280  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

among  men  in  our  times — respecting  the  Constitution,  which  he 
consolidated  on  the  foundations  of  Washington.  The  writ  was 
moved  for  in  behalf  of  Bolman  and  Swartwout — arrested  by  a 
military  officer  at  New  Orleans,  brought  to  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  there,  by  President  Jefferson,  delivered  to  the  court,  and 
committed  for  trial  for  treason.  The  right  of  the  court  to  award 
the  writ  was  denied,  and,  after  argument,  the  court,  by  John  Mar 
shall,  thus  delivered  the  judgment  on  the  authority  to  suspend 
the  writ: 

"If  at  any  time  the  public  safety  should  require  the  suspension 
of  the  powers  vested  by  this  act  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States, 
it  is  for  the  Legislature  to  say  so. 

"  That  question  depends  on  political  considerations,  on  which  the 
Legislature  is  to  decide.  Until  the  legislative  will  be  expressed, 
this  court  can  only  see  4ts  duty,  and  must  obey  the  laws. 

"  The  motion,  therefore,  must  be  granted." 

I  think  hereafter  it  will  be  a  stain  on  any  lawyer's  reputation 
to  have  ascribed  to  the  President  that  dangerous  and  unconstitu 
tional  discretion. 

I  presume  that  argument  may  be  dispensed  with  after  that  great 
authority,  but  what  then  ?  The  enemies  of  the  government  draw 
from  that  an  argument  to  paralyze  the  military  force  of  the  gov 
ernment.  The  President  can  not  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
therefore  it  can  be  used  to  discharge  every  body !  But  is  there  no 
Congress  ?  or,  is  it  less  trustworthy  than  the  President  ?  The  bus 
iness — according  to  those  who  wish  to  destroy  the  government — 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  to  let  traitors  out ;  its  great  merit  is 
to  turn  out  those  who  ought  not  to  be  free.  I  respectfully  submit 
that  they  have  overlooked  some  very  material  distinctions.  Who 
is  discharged  by  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ?  The  person  who  is 
not  confined  by  law.  If,  therefore,  he  ought  to  have  been  con 
fined,  although  he  come  up  under  the  call  of  the  writ,  he  will  be 
sent  back  by  the  judge.  An  apprentice,  a  sailor,  a  soldier  can  not 
be  discharged  by  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  Their  error  is  the  as 
suming  that  there  can  be  no  legal  confinement  except  that  which 
results  from  legal  process.  I  say  that  there  can  be  legal  confine 
ment  which  is  not  the  subject  of  judicial  examination  and  which 
is  not  by  process  of  law ;  and  yet  unlimited  discretion  does  not 
exist  in  the  President  to  arrest  any  person  of  whom  he  may  have 
suspicion ;  but  there  are  rules  prescribing  the  limits  of  that  power 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  281 

of  arrest  without  judicial  process,  addressed  to  the  President 
and  not  to  the  courts.  That  gentlemen  who  profess  to  be  of  the 
straitest  sect  of  the  Eepublicans  should  prefer  to  rush  to  the 
dangerous  discretion  of  the  martial  law  and  indiscriminate  au 
thority  in  the  President  without  limitation,  rather  than  take  the 
trouble  to  scan  the  settled  law  of  the  republic  as  it  has  been  de 
clared  by  its  greatest  lights,  is  one  of  the  dangerous  symptoms 
of  the  times.  The  President  is  authorized  by  the  act  of  Congress 
to  exercise  military  power,  not  against  quiet  people  at  home,  nor 
against  people  who  entertain  treasonable  sentiments,  but  against 
men  in  arms,  against  men  aiding  and  abetting  them;  that  is, 
against  men  engaged  actually  in  the  insurrection,  men  conveying 
military  information  or  military  stores,  men  sending  them  provi 
sions — against  men  doing  any  act  of  any  kind  to  aid  the  actual  ac 
complishment  of  armed  rebellion.  The  military  force  is  directed 
against  them.  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  a  case  which  has  become 
celebrated,  and  always  unfortunate  for  the  doubt  which  in  some 
minds  it  has  thrown  over  the  law,  previously  well  settled  by  both 
political  and  judicial  authority,  by  his  judgment  in  the  case  of 
Merriman,  alarmed  and  astonished  the  country  by  declaring  that 
there  is  no  authority  to  hold  a  prisoner  otherwise  than  by  the 
leave  of  the  courts  under  judicial  process  on  judicial  evidence. 
Jefferson  Davis  is  now  at  Bull  Eun  or  Manassas  Gap.  In  the 
course  of  a  few  weeks  we  trust  the  bayonets  of  the  republic  will 
point  in  that  direction.  (Applause.)  We  hope  that  superior 
numbers,  great  military  organization,  abundant  military  materiel, 
directed  by  superior  military  skill,  and  inspired  by  the  love  of 
the  Constitution  as  well  as  the  Union,  will  soon  unite  and  destroy 
the  Confederate  army ;  and  when  it  is  destroyed,  if  Mr.  Jefferson 
Davis  shall  happen  to  be  taken  prisoner,  together  with  50,000  of 
his  soldiers,  we  may  expect  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  issued  from  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  at  Eichmond,  under  the  protec 
tion  of  United  States  bayonets,  to  call  all  the  50,000  before  that 
court  and  discharge  them,  because  there  is  not  a  magistrate's  war 
rant  to  hold  them.  (Laughter.)  You  may  shoot  a  soldier,  but  if 
you  do  not  shoot  him  you  can  not  hold  him !  Why,  has  every 
body  forgotten  the  Dorr  rebellion ! !  On  a  small  scale,  in  a  small 
but  very  patriotic  State,  men  raised  the  arm  of  rebellion,  and  the 
Legislature  declared  "  martial  law."  That  is  the  first  time  those 
ill-omened  words — "  martial  laiv" — can  be  found  in  an  American 


282  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

statute ;  the  weed  has  since  spread  and  is  eating  out  better  grass. 
The  governor  understood  it  to  mean — not  discretionary  despotic 
power  above  law,  but  the  right  to  use  military  power  to  suppress 
that  insurrection,  and  he  did  so ;  and  in  the  course  of  his  efforts, 
he  forced  open  a  house  without  a  warrant  of  search,  and  arrested 
a  man  who  was  aiding  in  the  insurrection  without  a  warrant. 

The  question  of  the  right  to  do  so  in  this  case  was  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  there  a  judgment  was 
rendered  which  has  acquired  more  significance  by  subsequent 
events  than  by  those  which  brought  it  forth.  He  was  arrested  by 
military  authority ;  he  was  held  without  process ;  he  was  held  by 
a  military  officer.  Was  that  a  violation  of  the  law  of  the  land  ? 
What  does  Chief  Justice  Taney  say  in  that  case — for  it  was  his 
fortune  to  pronounce  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  that 
case — a  judgment  which  has  acquired  more  significance  by  recent 
events  than  by  those  which  brought  it  forth. 

"  It  was  a  state  of  war,  and  the  established  government  resorted 
to  the  rights  and  usages  of  war  to  maintain  itself  and  to  overcome 
the  unlawful  opposition.  And  in  that  state  of  things,  the  officers 
engaged  in  its  military  service  might  lawfully  arrest  any  one  who, 
from  the  information  before  them,  they  had  reasonable  grounds  to 
believe  was  engaged  in  the  insurrection,  and  might  order  a  house 
to  be  forcibly  entered  and  searched  when  there  were  reasonable 
grounds  for  supposing  he  might  be  there  concealed.  Without  the 
power  to  do  this,  martial  law  and  the  military  array  of  the  gov 
ernment  would  be  mere  parade,  and  rather  encourage  attack  than 
repel  it." 

No  wiser  words  than  those  have  been  said  on  this  delicate  sub 
ject.  First,  we  learn  that  when  military  power  has  been  author 
ized  by  law — as  Congress  has  authorized  it  now — the  "military 
officers"  might  lawfully  arrest — the  lawful  right  is  therefore  not 
confined  to  a  civil  magistrate — "any  one  who,  upon  information 
before  them" — that  is,  without  sworn  statements  of  any  kind — 
without  legal  or  sworn  testimony — any  one  "whom  they  had 
reasonable  grounds  to  believe" — not  any  one  proved  legally  before 
a  magistrate — "  was  engaged  in  the  insurrection" — not  any  one  of 
suspicious  opinions,  or  dangerous  influence,  or  uttering  treasonable 
sentiments — but  any  one  engaged  in  the  insurrection — that  is,  when 
hostility  had  passed  from  a  mental  disposition  into  the  external 
act  of  hostility ;  and  such  persons  may  be  arrested,  not  merely 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  283 

when  openly  on  the  field  in  arms,  but  a  house  may  without  war 
rant  be  forcibly  broken  open  and  searched,  where  there  were  not 
sworn  but  reasonable  grounds  to  believe  them  concealed. 

The  rights  of  the  people  and  of  the  individual  are  all  defined 
and  guarded  in  this  remarkable  judgment;  the  military  power  is 
emancipated  from  judicial  shackles  and  judicial  blindness,  and  in 
another  passage  it  is  freed  from  judicial  revision. 

Now,  one  step  farther.  The  court  is  speaking  of  the  precise 
case  that  we  have  before  us — of  a  declaration  on  the  part  of  the 
President  of  the  existence  of  circumstances  requiring  the  use  of 
military  force — and  the  question  is,  whether  they  are  cognizable 
by  the  courts  at  all.  The  courts  proceed  according  to  judicial 
forms  ;  the  political  power  does  not  proceed  according  to  judicial 
forms  ;  it  proceeds  in  an  administrative  manner,  which  is  equally 
legal  and  constitutional,  for  the  Constitution  authorizes  both. 
What  was  Merriman's  case?  He  had  aided  to  burn  bridges  and 
prevent  the  advance  of  the  national  troops  to  Washington,  and 
was  actively  engaged  in  that  most  efficient  method  of  arresting 
their  progress.  That  case,  then,  comes  within  the  military  right 
of  the  "President  to  make  a  military  arrest.  What  does  the  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States  say  touching  the  right  of  the  court? 
What  was  the  case  of  the  Baltimore  mayor  and  police  commis 
sioners,  and  their  marshal  of  police  ?  They  were  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  force  hostile  to  the  United  States,  which  they  had  actu 
ally  used  for  hostile  purposes  in  aid  of  the  insurrection.  They 
were  subject  to  military  arrest ;  but  after  arrest,  were  they  subject 
to  the  results  of  a  judicial  process  for  their  delivery,  or  were  they 
liable  by  law  of  equal  dignity  to  be  held  in  spite  of  the  courts  and 
beyond  their  jurisdiction,  and  by  a  right  of  which  they  were  not 
entitled  even  to  judge  ?  Bead  the  judgment  of  the  court  limiting 
its  own  powers. 

"After  the  President  has  acted  and  called  out  the  militia,  is  a 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  authorized  to  inquire  whether 
his  decision  was  right  ?" 

"  If  it  could,  then  it  would  become  the  duty  of  the  court,  pro 
vided  it  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  President  had  decided  in 
correctly,  to  discharge  those  who  were  arrested  or  detained  by  the 
troops  in  the  service  of  the  United  States.  If  the  judicial  power 
EXTENDS  so  FAR,  the  guarantee  contained  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  is  a  guarantee  of  anarchy,  and  not  of  order. 


284  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

Yet,  if  this  right  does  not  reside  in  the  courts  when  the  conflict 
is  raging,  if  the  judicial  power  is  at  that  time  bound  to  follow  the 
decision  of  the  political,  it  must  be  equally  bound  when  the  con 
test  is  over." 

It  can  not,  when  peace  is  restored,  punish  as  offenses  and  crimes 
the  act  which  it  before  recognized,  and  WAS  BOUND  TO  EECOGNIZE, 

AS  LAWFUL. 

A  military  arrest,  therefore,  of  a  person  engaged  in  the  insur 
rection  is  not  only  legal,  but  is  beyond  the  cognizance  of  the 
courts. 

It  is  true  this  judgment  was  rendered  when  President  Tyler 
was  suppressing  an  insurrection  in  a  free  State,  and  it  may  be 
thought  doubtful  if  the  same  law  apply  to  President  Lincoln  sup 
pressing  an  insurrection  in  a  slave  State.  The  learned  reader 
will,  under  Lord  Coke's  advice,  note  the  diversity. 

There  are  those  who  think  against  a  Southern  State  the  gov 
ernment  has  no  rights  ;  there  are  those  who  think  against  a  South 
ern  State  there  are  no  limits  to  the  authority  of  the  government. 
But  these  sentences  cover  the  whole  case ;  not  by  reasoning  on 
my  part  from  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  not  from  judges 
supposed  to  be  favorable  to  our  side  of  the  case,  not  in  a  case 
made  in  the  heat  of  the  time  and  in  the  midst  of  this  controversy, 
but  in  a  case  decided  under  the  presidency  of  John  Tyler — de 
cided  when  Southerners  had  the  possession  of  every  department 
of  the  government ;  when  they  had  the  balance  of  power  in  the 
Supreme  Court  itself;  when  it  was  their  power  that  was  arrested 
and  defied,  and  when  they  were  charged  to  execute  the  law  and 
use  the  military  power  of  the  United  States  to  enforce  the  laws 
of  the  United  States.  This  judgment,  rendered  by  one,  perhaps, 
not  too  friendly  to  the  United  States  in  this  hour  of  peril,  is  now 
the  very  foundation  of  the  law  of  the  republic  ;  put  there  in  the 
administration  of  John  Tyler,,  as  if  to  provide  for  the  very  case — 
to  exclude  controversy  under  changed  circumstances.  It  does 
not  say  that  if  a  man  is  arrested  by  the  military  authority  and 
brought  before  the  court,  that  the  court,  after  inquiry  into  the  jus 
tification  of  the  arrest,  would  remand  him,  but  that  the  court  has 
a  right  to  inquire  into  the  legality  of  his  arrest.  It  does  not  say 
that  the  court  is  entitled  to  inquire  by  the  oath  of  witnesses,  by 
the  process  of  a  magistrate.  It  says,  when  the  President  has  act 
ed  and  men  are  arrested,  that  the  courts  have  no  right  to  inquire 
into  the  subject  at  all. 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  285 

The  order  of  the  President  is  conclusive  on  the  courts ;  he  is 
exercising  a  political  discretion  vested  constitutionally  by  law 
in  him,  and  for  that  he  is  responsible  by  impeachment  in  Con 
gress.  Now  we  begin  to  understand  the  power  which  resides 
within  the  Constitution  of  George  Washington,  as  well  as  the 
limitations  which,  as  with  bands  of  iron,  bind  it  down  to  the  ne 
cessities  of  the  public  service,  limiting  and  excluding  every  thing 
like  mere  discretion,  every  thing  like  mere  arbitrary  power,  and 
subjecting  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  only  to  the  written  law  of  the 
land. 

If,  then,  after  the  President's  proclamation  commanding  rebels 
to  disperse  and  ordering  out  the  militia,  a  man  arrested  by  the 
President's  order,  because  engaged  in  the  insurrection,  apply  for 
a  habeas  corpus,  how  shall  the  law  be  administered  ? 

By  the  settled  course  of  the  courts,  if  he  show  the  facts  on  the 
petition,  the  court  will  refuse  the  writ. 

But  if  he  state  a  case  of  illegal  arrest,  and  the  court  award  the 
writ  on  the  false  suggestion,  is  the  military  officer  to  produce  the 
prisoner  ? 

Assuredly  not ;  his  duty  is  to  return  to  the  court  the  simple 
fact  that  the  person  is  held  by  the  order  of  the  President  for 
being  engaged  in  the  insurrection.  That  is  a  legal  and  tech 
nical  answer  to  the  writ ;  and  the  court  is  bound  to  take  official 
notice  of  the  proclamation  declaring  the  existence  of  the  insur 
rection,  which  carries  with  it  by  law  the  right  to  use  military 
power. 

What  if  the  courts  attempt  to  enforce  the  production  of  the  pris 
oner  ?  It  is  the  legal  duty  of  the  officer  to  resist  force  by  force. 
Where  one  is  held  by  authority  paramount  to  the  courts,  that  fact 
is  the  legal  return.  It  has  been  so  declared  by  Judge  M'Lean, 
whose  loss  the  jurisprudence  of  the  country  will  long  feel  and  de 
plore  ;  and  the  eminent  tribunal  of  which  he  was  at  once  the  or 
nament  and  pillar,  by  the  mouth  of  the  chief  justice,  has  only  four 
years  ago  instructed  us  on  this  momentous  question. 

A  court  of  Wisconsin,  infected  by  the  theories  of  South  Caro 
lina,  undertook  to  compel  by  habeas  corpus  the  discharge  of  a  per. 
son  held  by  the  United  States  marshal.  The  Supreme  Court 
unanimously  declared  it  "  the  duty  of  the  marshal  to  make  known 
to  the  judge  or  court,  by  a  proper  return,  the  authority  ly  which 
he  holds  him  in  custody." 


286  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

"  After  the  return  is  made,  and  the  State  judge  or  court  judi 
cially  apprised  that  the  party  is  in  custody  under  the  authority  of 
the  United  States,  they  can  proceed  no  farther  ;  and,  consequently,  it 
is  his  duty  not  to  take  the  prisoner,  nor  suffer  him  to  be  taken 
before  a  State  court  or  judge  upon  a  habeas  corpus,  issued  under 
State  authority." 

But  what  if  the  State  court  appeal  to  force  ? 

"It  would  be  his  duty  to  resist  it,  and  to  call  to  his  aid  any 
force  that  might  be  necessary  to  maintain  the  authority  of  law 
against  illicit  interference." 

"No  judicial  process,  whatever  form  it  may  assume,  can  have 
any  lawful  authority  outside  of  the  limits  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  court  or  judge  by  whom  it  is  issued;  and  an  attempt  to  en 
force  it  beyond  their  boundaries  is  nothing  less  than  lawless  vio 
lence." 

That  is  the  condemnation  of  the  proceedings  in  the  Merriman 
case;  the  asserted  right  to  suspend  the  writ  by  the  President  was 
justly  disregarded  by  the  court;  but  the  return  showed  a  mili 
tary  arrest  in  time  of  insurrection,  of  a  person  engaged  in  it,  by 
order  of  the  President,  and  such  an.  arrest  was  by  law  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  court;  and  the  officer  was  not  bound  to  obey 
the  writ  to  bring  up  and  hold  him  for  the  judgment  of  the  court, 
and  take  the  chances  of  adjudication  for  want  of  legal  evidence, 
although  the  man  might  have  been  arrested  upon  secret  informa 
tion  which  would  be  sufficient  to  move  an  army  or  fight  a  battle 
upon,  yet  not  recognized  by  a  court  of  justice — it  was  his  duty  to 
give  the  court  information  of  the  authority  under  which  he  was 
held,  and  that  excluded  the  right  to  inquire  whether  he  was  held 
rightfully  or  wrongfully. 

Now  that  is  the  precise  condition,  in  every  particular,  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  who  has  seized  men  in  arms  against 
the  government,  or  men  who  have  been  aiding  those  in  arms,  and 
is  holding  them  pending  the  war.  There  is  no  hardship  in  hold 
ing  a  man  who  is  engaged  in  arms  against  the  government ;  and 
the  right  to  determine  who  is  in  arms  against  the  government  is 
necessarily  exclusively  vested  in  the  President  when  he  is  direct 
ed  by  law  to  suppress  the  insurrection ;  for,  before  that  can  be 
done,  he  must  ascertain  who  is  making  it  lie  can  punish  no  man 
for  treason,  but  he  can  slay  thousands  on  the  field  of  battle ;  he 
can  arrest  no  man  because  he  has  committed  treason,  but  he  may 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  287 

seize  and  hold  thousands  engaged  in  the  insurrection  till  it  is  ex 
tinguished  ! 

It  is  the  difference  between  suppression  of  rebellion  and  pun 
ishment  for  treason ;  the  power  over  persons  and  property  inci 
dent  to  military  operations  allowed  by  law,  and  usurpations  of 
power  not  granted  or  forbidden. 

The  President  may  occupy  my  house  with  armed  men  for  de 
fense,  he  may  pull  it  down  to  prevent  its  sheltering  the  enemy, 
but  he  dare  not  quarter  a  single  soldier  in  it  without  my  consent, 
for  the  Constitution  forbids  it.  He  may  pull  down  a  printing- 
office  if  required  by  military  operations;  he  may,  if  Congress 
make  seditious  articles  a  crime,  prosecute  an  editor ;  but  there  is 
no  power  in  the  government  to  prevent  him,  or  others  for  him, 
continuing  to  publish  his  paper,  or  controlling  its  contents  by  cen 
sorship,  for  the  Constitution  forbids  it. 

The  property  of  rebel  and  loyal  are  alike  subject  to  the  sudden 
necessities  of  war ;  but  the  President,  in  conducting  the  war,  has 
no  right  over  property  because  it  belongs  to  a  rebel,  more  than  he 
would  have  if  it  belonged  to  a  loyal  citizen.  He  is  to  make  war 
for  suppression,  not  for  punishment ;  that  belongs  to  the  courts. 

But  within  the  scope  of  warlike  operations,  the  President,  by 
the  law  of  Congress,  is  paramount  to  the  courts.  He  is  charged 
with  a  high  discretionary  political  power,  of  the  propriety  of 
whose  exercise  the  courts  are  incompetent  to  judge,  as  they  have 
repeatedly  declared ;  the  courts  take  the  law  from  the  political 
departments  in  all  such  cases.  They  can  recognize  no  government 
unless  the  President  has  recognized  it.  They  can  entertain  no 
question  of  boundary  of  the  United  States  other  than  that  rec 
ognized  by  the  political  departments.  They  can  not  question  the 
conduct  of  the  President  in  declaring  a  state  of  insurrection  or 
in  ordering  the  militia  to  suppress  it;  and  it  is  merely  another 
application  of  the  same  principle  which  forbids  them  to  control, 
arrest,  or  judge  of  the  justification  of  any  military  acts  done  with 
in  the  scope  of  the  military  authority  confided  to  the  President 
by  Congress.  The  same  law  which  gives  the  courts  their  juris 
diction,  exempts  such  acts  of  the  President  from  their  cognizance. 

I  pray  your  indulgence  for  these  dry  details ;  but  the  founda 
tion-stones  of  the  republic  are  not  polished  as  the  columns  and 
cornices  which  glitter  in  the  sun,  and  it  is  those  deep  foundations 
I  am  exploring. 


288  CONSTITUTIONAL  TOWERS  SUFFICIENT 

Gentlemen  of  the  Association,  I  trust  that  I  have  made  myself 
intelligible,  but  I  fear  I  have  wearied  you  by  the  dryness  of  a 
mere  legal  discussion,  before  a  mixed  and  popular  audience ;  but 
we  all  profess  to  be  citizens  of  a  great  and  free  government,  now 
engaged  in  one  of  those  rare  crises  that  every  nation  has  to  pass 
through  at  some  period  of  its  career,  and  it  is  well  that  we  should 
look  to  the  great  charter  of  our  liberties,  and  elevate  it,  if  neces 
sary,  in  our  own  estimation,  by  contemplating  the  wisdom  with 
which  it  has  foreseen  every  danger,  the  amplitude  of  the  powers 
which  it  has  provided  to  deal  with  every  contingency,  and  the 
discretion  it  has  exhibited  in  confiding  powers  to  Congress,  some 
with  limitations  and  some  without,  providing  in  that  way  for 
every  contingency  that  can  arise.  We  may  very  well  spend  an 
hour  or  two,  even  if  it  be  in  the  laborious  pursuit  of  a  dry  argu 
ment,  to  rid  our  minds  of  an  impression  which  has  so  settled  into 
public  conviction  among  great  masses  of  our  countrymen  that  the 
legal  authority  is  not  sufficient  to  deal  with  the  existing  danger. 
It  takes  away  half  our  republicanism  to  feel  that  we  put  down 
rebels  by  a  violation  of  the  law.  It  takes  away  from  the  eleva 
tion,  the  dignity,  and  the  superiority  of  the  government  in  dealing 
with  them.  It  is  impudently  flung  into  our  faces  by  the  message 
of  Jefferson  Davis,  who  speaks  about  the  tyranny  of  men  who  are 
assailing  him.  I  wish  the  war  to  be  conducted  as  a  war  ought  to 
be  conducted,  which  is  to  determine  the  life,  and  not  only  the  life, 
but  that  which  is  more,  the  freedom  of  the  American  people,  the 
reputation  of  republican  government,  its  respect,  its  enduring  pow 
er,  and  its  influence  over  the  nations  of  the  world.  There  are  those 
abroad  who  would  rejoice  at  our  fall — there  are  few  who  would 
not,  except  the  oppressed  of  the  Old  World.  In  their  name  I  ap 
peal  to  you — let  not  the  name  of  the  republic  go  to  Europe  hum 
bled  by  the  confession  of  its  own  failure.  Let  it  not  go  shorn  of 
the  glory  which  has  made  it  an  ever-present  terror  to  the  enemies 
of  liberty  abroad.  Let  it  stand  glittering  in  armor,  but  the  armor 
of  the  law.  Let  it  stand  the  emblem  of  the  power  of  the  people 
to  govern  themselves  according  to  laws  wisely  foreseeing  danger, 
without  putting  their  liberties,  their  lives,  and  their  honor  at  the 
discretion  of  men  no  wiser  or  better  than  themselves — dictators  to 
supply  the  want  of  foresight  in  the  people.  (Applause.)  I  am 
as  humble  as  any  man  in  this  assembly,  but  there  is  no  man  here 
good  enough  to  be  my  master.  I  respect  and  confide  in  the  wis- 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  289 

dom,  resolution,  and  uprightness  of  President  Lincoln  ;  but  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  is  not  good  enough  for  my  master.  (Applause.)  I 
will  trust  him  with  the  administration  of  the  laws,  but  I  will  not 
trust  him  to  make  them,  nor  beyond  them.  I  will  trust  him  with 
all  the  great  deposit  of  power  that  the  Constitution  has  placed  in 
his  hands — -that  vast  power  which,  when  it  is  called  forth  in  the 
magnificence  of  its  military  array,  blinds  the  eye  accustomed  only 
to  the  habiliments  of  peace ;  but  I  will  not  add  to  it  a  dictator 
ship — arbitrary  and  discretionary  powers  without  the  guidance 
and  above  the  control  of  written  law.  I  protest  against  it  in  the 
name  of  republican  liberty.  I  protest  against  it  in  the  name  of 
every  limitation  in  the  Constitution  under  which  we  live.  I  pro 
test  against  it  in  the  name  of  those  Englishmen  who  defied  in  arms 
their  king,  because  he  claimed  over  them  discretionary,  unlimited 
power  ;  and  of  those  fathers  of  the  Constitution  who  in  this  coun 
try  followed  in  their  footsteps,  were  lighted  by  their  wisdom,  were 
guided  by  their  example,  and  embodied  in  a  law  paramount  to 
the  varying  will  of  the  people  the  necessary  restrictions  upon  the 
frailties  of  human  nature.  I  turn  with  reverence  to  the  great 
Northern  light  of  the  Constitution,  the  Newton  of  this  great  s}7s- 
tem — which  is  heaven  while  it  is  order,  but  will  be  chaos  if  dis 
cretion  rule  it — to  guide  my  footsteps  in  this  hour  of  darkness, 
and  with  him  I  read,  inscribed  on  the  foundations  of  the  govern 
ment,  these  cardinal  principles :  first,  government  by  representa 
tion  ;  next,  that  solemn  declaration  that  the  will  of  the  majority — 
not  of  newspapers  nor  of  public  meetings — the  will  of  the  majori- 
to — not  in  a  fright,  not  in  a  panic,  not  divined  from  apparent  ne 
cessity,  but  solemnly  declared  according  to  the  forms  of  law — shall 
have  the  force  of  law;  then,  that  there  shall  be  a  written  Consti 
tution,  defining  and  carefully  limiting  the  powers  conferred  upon 
the  men  charged  to  represent  the  people,  and  restricting  their  dis 
cretion.  In  that  great,  last  legacy  of  the  great  Northern  states 
man,  when  he  was  speaking,  as  it  were,  to  future  ages,  and  telling 
them,  by  the  grandest  enumeration  that  ever  summed  up  a  na 
tion's  progress,  of  the  elements  of  our  prosperity,  our  power,  our 
advancement,  and  the  glories  of  our  achievements — in  that  great 
oration  he  thought  it  important  to  call  to  the  minds  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  that  these  glorious  results  were  not  the  offspring  of  mob 
law;  or  of  arbitrary  discretion,  of  despotism  disguised  as  democra 
cy,  which  rules  across  the  water,  or  of  military  law,  or  of  law  made 

T 


290  CONSTITUTIONAL  POWERS  SUFFICIENT 

for  the  exigency  by  executive  usurpation,  or  of  the  law  of  neces 
sity,  or  of  the  law  of  the  safety  of  the  people,  but  that  the  fountain 
from  which  all  flowed  was  the  rigid  adherence  to  written  law,  to 
the  will  of  the  people,  proclaimed  in  constitutional  forms.  It  was  law 
so  enacted  that  he  proclaimed  to  be  supreme.  It  was  the  result 
of  a  government  so  contrived  and  so  administered,  one  that  had 
attracted  the  admiration  and  the  envy  of  the  Old  World,  and  was 
the  foundation  and  prosperity  of  the  New,  which  he  celebrated ; 
and  in  this  his  great  parting  legacy  to  his  countrymen,  when  he 
prophesied  the  endurance  of  the  republic,  it  was  because  these 
principles  were  its  foundation,  and  he  thought  they  would  not  be 
shaken.  It  is  because  these  principles  have  been  departed  from 
that  the  edifice  of  the  Constitution  now  reels  around  us.  We 
must  recur  to  them,  cling  to  them,  act  upon  them,  if  we  would 
maintain  the  government  that  we  have  received  from  our  fathers. 
It  is  our  liberty  that  makes  us  respected  and  envied,  powerful 
and  glorious — our  liberty  of  law  in  contrast  with  that  which  is 
democratic  license,  that  mere  unchecked,  uncontrolled,  absolute 
will  of  a  floating  majority,  rolling  over  every  barrier,  where  dema 
gogues  lash  the  people  into  fury  in  order  to  accomplish  their  am 
bitious  purposes.  The  peculiarity  of  the  American  people  has  al 
ways  been  its  adherence  and  obedience  to  law ;  its  hesitation,  even 
under  the  greatest  emergencies,  to  step  across  the  lines  of  the  law. 
It  is  only  the  revolutionary  fever  of  this  latter  time  that  has  driv 
en  for  a  moment  these  American  ideas  and  these  American  feel 
ings  from  the  American  heart.  It  is  now  time  that  we  should  be 
enabled  to  show  that  we  not  only  have  the  military  power  to  sup 
press  insurrection,  but  that  we  can  do  it  clad  in  the  panoply  of 
law.  It  is  only  weighty  to  those  who  are  not  yet  habituated  to 
wear  it.  We  have  proved  it  on  many  a  field ;  let  us  not  throw  it 
off  in  the  day  of  battle. 

The  nations  of  Europe  fail  in  their  efforts  for  republican  gov 
ernment  because  they  are  not  habituated  to  the  restraints  of  law 
self-imposed ;  they  are  not  habituated  to  subordinate  their  will 
of  the  moment  to  the  calm  judgment  which  has  foreseen  and  pro 
vided  for  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  They  fail  because  they  ad 
mit  the  law  of  necessity  to  control  the  law  of  the  land,  and  leave 
a  discretion  which  is  despotism  to  provide  for  the  emergencies  of 
the  moment.  It  is  self-control  that  is  the  greatness  of  the  Amer 
ican  people.  (Applause.)  It  is  obedience  to  their  own  law  that 


FOR  REPRESSION  OF  REBELLION.  291 

is  their  power.  It  is  because  they  have  declared  that  their  Con 
stitution  is  the  solus  populi  /  it  is  because  they  adhere  to  the  rule 
that  the  written  law  is  the  voice  of  the  people ;  it  is  because  they 
appeal  from  the  hour  of  passion  to  the  day  of  calm  reflection,  that 
they  have  proved  themselves  worthy  of  the  liberty  that  their 
fathers  conquered  for  them.  When  they  shall  neglect  to  adhere 
to  that  great  rule,  when  they  shall  no  longer  be  masters  over 
themselves,  when  they  can  not  stop  in  a  moment  of  passion  to  re 
flect  upon  the  limits  they  themselves  have  placed  around  their 
passions  for  their  own  good,  and  reverently  bow  before  the  holv 
laws,  they  can  no  longer  be  the  peaceful,  orderly,  progressive,  and 
powerful  republic  of  Washington.  Till  now  the  current  of  our 
life  has  rolled  on,  quiet  and  powerful  as  the  Gulf  Stream.  The 
storm  of  party  strife  has  rippled  on  its  surface  :  the  foam  of  pas 
sion  has  vanished  with  the  storm  that  caused  it ;  and  the  great 
deep,  undisturbed,  has  rolled  still,  quietly,  majestically,  and  re 
flecting  from  its  surface  the  image  of  liberty  robed  in  law.  When 
you  shall  upheave  its  lower  depths  by  the  earthquake  of  revolu 
tion,  you  will  have  changed  its  majestic  course ;  you  will  have 
dried  up  the  current  of  your  prosperity  ;  you  will  have  closed  the 
sources  of  your  power ;  and  in  the  place  of  the  vanished  waters 
will  appear  the  lava  and  scorise  which  strew  the  soil  of  revolu 
tionary  Europe.  (Applause.) 


I 

CONFISCATION   OF  THE   PROPERTY  OF 
THOSE  ENGAGED  IN  REBELLION. 

Two  Letters  to  the  Hon.  Justin  &  Morrill,  a  Representative  in  Congress  from 

Vermont. 

ME.  DAVIS  closely  followed,  and  watched  with  interest  the  proceed 
ings  and  discussions  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress,  for  a  seat  in  which 
he  had  been  defeated,  under  the  circumstances  already  stated.  During 
the  debates  in  Congress  in  regard  to  the  "  Confiscation  Bills,"  he  fre 
quently  conferred  with  his  former  associates  in  Congress  in  relation  to 
those  measures,  and  to  one  of  them  he  addressed  the  following  letters : 

Baltimore,  Md.,  June  G,  1862: 

MY  DEAR  SIK, — I  have  followed  with  great  interest  and  some 
surprise  the  course  of  argument  in  opposition  to  the  Confiscation 
Bills. 

Their  opponents  seem  inclined  to  trifle  with  the  people,  or  else 
they  have  forgotten  the  simplest  elements  of  law. 

I  observe  that  some  respectable  lawyers  confound  the  Confis 
cation  Bills  with  bills  of  attainder  or  of  pains  and  penalties  I 

Congress  is  rightly  forbidden  to  pass  a  bill  of  attainder ;  and  I 
would  forever  maintain  that  inhibition.  But  what  is  a  bill  of  at 
tainder? 

It  is  a  law  performing  the  office  of  a  judgment.  It  is  a  Legis 
lature  doing  the  work  of  a  judge.  It  is  an  act  of  Congress  or  of 
Parliament,  declaring  a  particular  person  guilty  of  a  specified  act, 
and  ordering  his  punishment.  The  passage  of  the  law  places  the 
person  just  where  a  conviction  and  judgment  of  a  court  places 
him ;  nothing  remains  but  execution. 

It  is  ridiculous  to  call  the  bills  before  Congress  bills  of  attain 
der.  They  have  no  one  of  the  penalties  of  a  bill  of  attainder,  and 
the  word  can  be  applied  to  them  in  no  sense  ever  recognized  in  a 
law-book.  They  who  do  so  apply  the  word  are  either  ill-inform 
ed,  or  invoke  a  prejudice  to  do  the  work  of  argument. 

The  bills  before  Congress  name  no  particular  persons,  therefore 
they  punish  nobody.  They  declare  that  certain  acts,  committed 


CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PROPERTY,  ETC.        293 

after  their  passage,  shall  be  punished  by  confiscation  ;  but,  till  the 
act  is  committed,  no  one  can  be  declared  guilty  of  it ;  they  do  not 
therefore  attaint  any  one.  A  bill  of  attainder  relates  to  the  past, 
and  nothing  but  punishment  remains  after  its  passage.  The  bills 
before  Congress  relate  to  the  future — declare  the  future  conse 
quences  of  future  acts,  and  leave  both  the  person  and  the  fact  to 
be  ascertained  after  the  law  declaring  the  punishment  shall  have 
passed. 

What  excuse  is  there  to  confound  such  a  law  with  a  bill  of  at 
tainder?  a  legislative  judgment  on  a  past  act  with  a  legislative 
penalty  on  a  future  act  ? 

The  same  gentlemen  invoke  against  the  bills  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  declares  that  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to 
declare  the  punishment  of  treason  ;  but  no  attainder  of  treason  shall 
work  corruption  of  blood  or  forfeiture,  except  during  the  life  of 
the  person  attainted."  But  what  has  that  clause  to  do  with  laws 
which  confessedly  provide  for  confiscation  without  conviction  of 
the  person  for  treason.  The  most  plausible  objection  to  the  con 
fiscation  laws  is  that  they  do  not  make  the  forfeiture  dependent 
on  a  previous  conviction  :  it  is  therefore  clear  that  the  clause 
which  defines  the  consequences  of  a  conviction  of  the  person  can 
have  no  bearing  on  a  law  which  prescribes  other  modes  of  ascer 
taining  and  enforcing  a  forfeiture.  It  may  be  that  those  methods 
are  forbidden,  and,  if  so,  the  law  must  fail  of  execution  ;  but  it  is 
irrelevant  to  quote  a  rule  of  judgment  defining  and  limiting  the 
consequences  of  a  conviction  for  treason  against  a  law  which  con 
templates  neither  conviction  nor  judgment  for  treason. 

It  is  certain  that  Congress  can  pass  no  law  whereby  a  person 
convicted  of  treason  can  be  sentenced  to  forfeit  his  property,  be 
yond  his  life,  as  a  consequence  of  the  conviction.  Such  a  law 
would  be  void.  Such  a  judgment  would  vest  no  title  in  the  gov 
ernment,  and  the  heirs  of  the  owner  could  eject  any  one  claiming 
his  property  under  the  United  States. 

But  the  provision  does  not  say  Congress  shall  not  make  for 
feiture  the  penalty  of  any  act,  nor  even  that  Congress  may  not 
make  forfeiture  a  penalty  of  treason  itself;  it  merely  says  that 
forfeiture  beyond  the  life  shall  not  be  one  of  the  consequences  of 
a  conviction  of  the  person  for  treason. 

Now  the  pending  bills  do  not  connect  confiscation  and  convic 
tion  of  the  person  for  any  crime,  still  less  for  treason. 


294  CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PROPERTY  OF 

This  clause  therefore,  whatever  it  meant  and  whatever  be  its 
effect,  has  no  relation  to  bills  such  as  those  reported  by  Mr.  Eliot, 
That  clause  does  not  prove  Mr.  Eliot's  bills  to  be  unconstitutional. 

Is  there  any  other  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  forbids  such 
legislation  ? 

It  seems  to  me  the  lawyers  are  especially  at  fault  when  they 
refer  to  the  provisions  relating  to  the  trial  of  all  crimes  by  jury. 

No  person  can  be  convicted  of  any  crime  but  by  a  jury;  but 
these  bills  do  not  contemplate  any  conviction  of  any  person,  any 
proceeding  against  the  person  whatever. 

Still  less  can  any  argument  be  deduced  from  the  fifth  amend 
ment,  declaring  that  "  no  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  any 
capital  or  other  infamous  crime,  unless  on  presentment  of  a  grand 
jury,"  etc. ;  "nor  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without 
due  process  of  law ;"  for  no  one  is  "  held  to  answer"  under  these 
laws  at  all ;  and  the  question  is  whether  this  mode  of  depriving 
them  of  property  is  not  a  due  process  of  law  for  that  purpose. 

There  are  various  processes  of  law  for  depriving  persons  of  life, 
liberty,  and  property,  and  one  method  does  not  exclude  another 
method,  but  each  is  good  in  its  particular  case,  while  some  are  for 
bidden,  and  therefore  are  unconstitutional  in  all  cases.  A  bill  of 
attainder  and  an  ex  post  facto  law  are  forbidden.  No  person  can 
be  held  to  answer  for  any  crime  unless  on  the  presentment  of  a 
grand  jury,  nor  tried  otherwise  than  by  a  jury  of  the  State  and 
district.  If,  therefore,  Congress  pass  a  bill  of  attainder  against 
Jefferson  Davis,  or  should  enact  that  a  Court  of  Admiralty  should 
try  and  convict  for  murder,  without  a  jury,  or  indictment  by  a 
grand  jury,  that  law  would  be  unconstitutional,  for  it  is  forbidden. 
It  is  a  trial  and  a  conviction  without  due  process  of  law,  and  death 
under  it  is  murder,  and  imprisonment  under  it  an  illegal  violation 
of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  But  it  would  be  a  gross  error  to  s&y 
that  no  one  can  be  deprived  of  liberty  or  life  otherwise  than  un 
der  criminal  prosecution,  for  then  the  President  has  murdered 
many  men  in  the  field,  and  enslaved  many  men  in  the  military 
prisons.  For  men  in  arms,  a  bullet  is  due  process  of  law ;  seizure 
by  military  power  is  due  process  of  law;  they  are  not  conviction, 
nor  trial,  nor  punishment  of  the  persons ;  they  as  assuredly  de 
prive  them  of  life  or  of  liberty  as  a  conviction  and  a  sheriff,  and 
they  are  just  as  legal  as  conviction  and  hanging. 

So  there  are  methods  of  depriving  persons  of  property  which 


THOSE  ENGAGED  IN  REBELLION.  295 

are  not  connected  with  criminal  proceedings  against  the  person, 
and  provisions  which  define  the  modes  of  proceedings  against  the 
person,  and  limit  the  consequences  of  such  proceedings,  have  no 
relation  to  processes  of  law  not  against  the  person,  which  yet  do 
deprive  the  person  of  his  property. 

Taxation  deprives  the  person  of  his  property,  not  by  any  ju 
dicial  process,  but  by  an  administrative  process;  yet  it  is  a  process 
of  law,  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  government.  It  is  just  as 
rational  to  quote  the  prohibition  against  taking  private  property 
for  public  use  without  compensation,  to  prove  the  unconstitutkfrt- 
ality  of  taxation,  as  to  invoke  the  prohibitions  against  making 
confiscation  a  consequence  of  conviction,  to  prove  that  there  could 
be  no  confiscation  without  conviction. 

If  taxes  be  not  paid,  the  failure  is  followed  by  seizure  and  sale, 
without  judicial  process;  for  a  small  amount  of  taxes  a  large 
estate  may  be  sold ;  and  that  is  a  consequence  annexed  to  the  ille 
gal  act  of  failing  to  pay  the  amount  assessed.  Not  unfrequently 
a  percentage  is  added  for  delay,  and  levied  with  the  principal  of 
the  tax  itself.  "When  the  sheriff,  or  the  marshal,  or  the  collector 
sells  the  property  for  taxes,  that  is  due  process  of  law,  and  the 
change  of  property  is  in  the  nature  of  a  penalty,  and  the  expenses 
of  the  proceedings  are  veritable  forfeitures  for  illegal  acts. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  wholly  unfounded  assumption  that  property 
is  liable  to  be  taken  for  the  defaults  of  the  owner  only  upon  or 
after  conviction  for  an  offense  by  jury  and  court.  Yet  it  is  this 
confusion  between  criminal  proceedings  against  the  person  and 
proceedings  against  property  because  of  a  person's  acts,  which  alone 
lends  plausibility  to  the  argument  against  the  Confiscation  Bills. 

But,  so  far  from  being  a  new  method  of  proceeding,  intended 
to  evade  the  securities  thrown  around  the  person  against  criminal 
prosecutions,  it  is  one  of  the  oldest  forms  of  proceeding  known  to 
our  laws. 

The  slightest  examination  of  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United 
States  will  show  that,  from  the  foundation  of  the  government,  for 
feitures  for  illegal  acts  have  always  been  enforced  in  the  courts, 
irrespective  of  the  conviction  or  prosecution  of  the  guilty  person. 
The  fact  has  been  investigated  by  the  judge  without  a  jury,  and 
the  confiscation  enforced  for  eighty  years,  without  any  one  dream 
ing  that  citizens  were  being  punished  without  either  grand  or 
petty  jury. 


296         CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PROPERTY  OF 

The  act  of  1799  declares  goods  entered  under  fraudulent  in 
voices  shall  be  forfeited ;  and  the  forfeiture  is  enforced  by  pro 
ceeding  against  the  goods,  and  not  the  person  committing  the 
fraud.  Surely  the  men  of  1799  knew  what  their  Constitution 
meant. 

By  various  acts  of  Congress,  goods  imported  in  certain  foreign 
vessels  are  forfeited,  together  with  the  vessel,  and  the  forfeiture  is 
enforced  against  the  goods  and  vessel,  and  not  by  conviction  of 
the  owner  or  importers. 

By  our  navigation  acts,  licensed  vessels  are  forfeited  for  being 
employed  in  the  foreign  trade,  or  when  found  using  a  forged  or 
altered  license,  or  if  sold  to  one  not  a  citizen  ;  and  all  these  for 
feitures  are  enforced  against  the  vessel  directly,  and  not  by  con 
viction  of  the  owner  whose  property  is  confiscated. 

It  is  a  highly  penal  offense  to  sell  spirituous  liquors  in  the  In 
dian  country,  and  the  law  not  merely  punishes  the  person  who 
carries  liquor  there  by  fine  on  conviction,  but  the  boats,  stores, 
places  of  deposit,  and  packages  of  the  trader  are  directed  to  be 
searched,  and  if  liquor  or  wine  be  found  there,  all  the  goods,  boats, 
packages,  etc.,  of  the  trader  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  United  States; 
and  the  forfeiture  is  enforced,  not  by  conviction  of  the  person,  but  • 
by  seizure  and  condemnation  of  the  articles  confiscated  in  pro 
ceedings  against  them.  The  manner  of  proceeding  for  forfeiture 
under  the  revenue  laws  is  expressly  extended  to  confiscations  un 
der  the  Indian  trading  laws. 

The  laws  for  suppressing  the  slave-trade  abound  in  pointed 
illustrations. 

Every  person  concerned  in  the  trade  is  declared  guilty  of  a 
crime  punishable  by  indictment,  the  penalty  varying  from  a  heavy 
fine  to  death,  according  to  the  acts  committed ;  and  side  by  side 
with  these  penalties,  to  be  enforced  by  indictment  and  conviction, 
are  classes  of  forfeiture  to  be  enforced  by  libel  against  the  thing 
forfeited.  The  forfeiture  of  confiscation  depends  on  the  fact  of  a 
crime  committed,  but  not  on  the  conviction  of  the  person  for  the 
crime.  The  fact  is  ascertained  by  the  appropriate  tribunal  in 
either  case  independently ;  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  crim 
inal  may  be  acquitted  while  the  vessel  may  be  confiscated. 

No  citizen  can  hold  any  title  or  interest  in  any  vessel  engaged 
in  the  slave-trade;  and  if  he  do,  it  is  forfeited  by  proceedings 
against  the  vessel,  and  the  owner  is  liable  to  a  penalty  besides. 


THOSE  ENGAGED  IN  EEBELLION.  297 

The  United  States  vessels  are  authorized  to  seize  vessels  engaged 
in  the  traffic,  and  the  vessel  and  every  thing  found  on  her  is  for 
feited  except  the  slaves.  They  can  not  be  claimed  by  their  own 
er,  even  though  really  slaves  by  the  law  of  the  owner's  country. 
It  would  seem  that  the  slaves  are  freed  by  the  law ;  for  the  owner 
can  not  claim  them,  and  no  one  else  can  show  a  title  to  them. 
These  laws  do  not  apply  merely  to  the  African  slave-trade,  but 
the  same  penalties  and  forfeitures  attach  to  transporting  from  Bra 
zil  or  Cuba  into  the  United  States  persons  who  are  slaves  by  the 
laws  of  those  countries.  The  owner  loses  his  vessel,  the  master 
his  slaves  on  the  vessel,  and  the  persons  engaged  in  the  traffic 
or  in  navigating  the  vessel  commit  a  crime  for  which  they  are 
punishable  on  conviction ;  but  their  conviction  is  not  essential  to 
the  condemnation  of  the  vessel  or  the  discharge  of  the  slaves. 

In  some  cases,  persons  engaged  in  the  slave-trade  are  guilty 
of  piracy,  and  suffer  death ;  yet  in  those,  as  in  other  cases,  the 
vessel  and  cargo  are  confiscated  by  process  against  them,  and 
wholly  irrespective  of  any  conviction  of  the  guilty  persons. 

The  precedents  of  the  slave-trade  laws  are  of  special  interest  in 
relation  to  the  confiscation  of  the  slaves  of  rebels.  The  necessary 
form  of  confiscation  is  emancipation.  The  temper  of  the  country 
would  not  tolerate  the  sale  of  slaves  by  the  United  States ;  still 
less  would  it  tolerate  the  exemption  of  this  species  of  property 
from  any  consequences  the  law  may  attach  to  any  property  of 
rebels.  Slave  property  is  the  pretext  of  the  rebellion,  and  the 
chief  instrument  by  which  the  revolutionists  have  coerced  submis 
sion  to  their  will.  Sound  policy  requires  that  a  weapon  of  such 
power  be  broken  or  wrested  from  the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  the 
government,  and  nothing  ought  to  arrest  the  blow  but  the  plain 
prohibitions  of  the  Constitution;  for  subordination  to  the  supreme 
law  is  the  condition  of  national  existence.  Fortunately,  its  wise 
provisions  strip  the  government  of  no  power  which  a  free  govern 
ment  ought  to  wield;  least  of  all  does  it  forbid  the  confiscation 
of  slaves,  and  emancipation  is  an  inseparable  incident  of  owner 
ship.  Of  course,  they  who  call  confiscation  laws  bills  of  attainder, 
will  call  emancipation  of  confiscated  slaves  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  States  by  Congress.  But  no  loyal  people  will  confound  the 
release  of  the  government's  title  in  the  slaves  confiscated  with  a 
prohibition  against  holding  any  slave  in  the  State. 

But  Mr.  Eliot's  bill  is  in  one  particular  wholly  indefensible.    It 


298  CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PKOPERTY  OF 

violates  all  constitutional  principles  of  American  law  in  requiring 
persons  to  prove  their  innocence.  It  places  the  title  to  negro  prop 
erty  of  loyal  people  at  the  mercy  of  the  government,  for  it  strips 
the  owner  of  all  power  to  prevent  confiscation  unless  he  can  prove 
that  he  has  not  aided  the  rebellion,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for 
any  one  to  prove.  Eequire  an  oath  that  he  has  not  been  so  en 
gaged,  but  do  not  stain  American  law  with  a  provision  that  a 
man  shall  be  presumed  guilty ! ! 

The  bill  is  defective  in  another  particular.  It  gives  the  freed- 
man  no  legal  protection.  He  can,  the  "bill  says,  plead  the  law ;  but 
the  master  will  never  sue  him,  but  seize  him.  The  freedman  must 
be  the  actor,  and  the  law  gives  him  no  standing  in  court.  The 
United  States  is  in  duty  -bound  to  extend  to  him  the  habeas  cor 
pus  in  a  United  States  Court  which  now  no  law  gives  him ;  and 
if  these  be  not  done,  the  act  of  emancipation  will  give  no  real  free 
dom,  but  will  be  merely  a  source  of  endless  confusion.  Men  freed 
by  the  law  of  the  special  session  are  now  suffering  in  Maryland 
for  want  of  such  provision. 

The  slave-trade  laws  were  passed  in  1794, 1800, 1807, 1818, 
1819,  and  1820,  in  the  administrations  of  Washington,  Adams, 
Jefferson,  and  Monroe.  They  involve  every  principle  now  as 
sailed  in  the  Confiscation  Bills,  from  the  confiscation  of  property 
for  criminal  acts  of  the  owner,  without  conviction  of  the  guilty 
person,  by  process  of  law  against  the  thing  and  not  against  the 
person,  to  the  freeing  of  slaves  for  the  violation  of  law  by  their 
owners. 

It  is  therefore  frivolous  to  assail  these  laws  on  the  ground  of 
unconstitutionality.  If  any  principle  is  settled  by  the  uniform 
practice  of  the  government,  it  is  this  principle  of  confiscation  for 
criminal  acts  by  direct  process  against  the  property  confiscated, 
and  wholly  without  regard  to  the  conviction  or  prosecution  of 
the  guilty  person. 

This  review  of  Congressional  enactments  may  well  increase  our 
astonishment  at  the  hardihood  of  the  assailants  of  these  laws. 
They  treat  the  precedents  of  the  founders  of  the  government  with 
no  more  respect  than  they  do  the  Constitution  they  made.  Their 
objections  to  the  bills  are  plausible  only  when  the  language  of 
the  Constitution  is  perverted  and  misapplied ;  and  that  distortion 
can  only  escape  exposure  by  carefully  abstaining  from  all  con 
sideration  of  the  contemporary  exposition  of  the  Constitution  by 
its  authors. 


THOSE  ENGAGED  IN  REBELLION.  299 

It  appears,  therefore,  from  this  investigation : 

I.  That  there  is  no  prohibition  in  the  Constitution  against  mak 
ing  confiscation  a  penalty  for  any  crime. 

II.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Constitution  which  makes  confisca 
tion  dependent  on  the  conviction  of  the  person  on  indictment. 

III.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Constitution  which  limits  all  con 
fiscations  to  the  life  of  the  guilty  person. 

IY.  The  only  clause  relating  to  the  subject  simply  forbids  Con 
gress  to  make  forfeiture  beyond  the  life  of  the  convict  a  conse 
quence  of  conviction  for  treason. 

Y.  But  it  does  not  say  that  Congress  may  not  by  law  confiscate 
absolutely  the  whole  property  of  persons  who  do  the  acts  speci 
fied  in  the  bills  reported  by  Mr.  Eliot,  by  proceedings  against  the 
property,  and  not  in  consequence  of  a  conviction  of  the  person. 

YI.  And  the  whole  course  of  legislation  of  the  country  has 
sanctioned  the  distinction  by  laws  passed  under  the  auspices  of 
the  fathers  of  the  Constitution. 

If  any  one  ask,  Why  prohibit  confiscation  in  pursuance  of  con 
viction,  and  allow  it  without  conviction  ? 

I  reply,  The  burden  of  showing  the  unconstitutionality  of  the 
law  lies  in  those  who  affirm  it.  They  can  not  defeat  it  by  show 
ing  that  the  Constitution  has  forbidden  it  in  cases  not  now  con 
templated.  The  question  is  what  the  Constitution  says  against 
confiscation  without  conviction  of  the  person ;  and  I  say  it  is  silent, 
It  limits  confiscation  as  the  consequence  of  conviction,  and  there 
it  stops. 

It  is  possible  a  reason  may  be  found  for  this  limitation  in  con 
nection  with  a  conviction,  in  the  spirit  wnich  dictated  the  defini 
tion  of  treason  while  other  crimes  were  left  to  the  definition  of 
Congress. 

Treason  had  been  the  pretext  of  many  bloody  judicial  murders 
in  English  history ;  constructive  treasons  were  the  contrivances 
of  jealous  tyrants,  or  greedy  applicants,  or  fierce  opponents. 

To  limit  the  crime  to  open  war,  to  require  double  proof,  to  re 
move  the  temptations  of  cupidity  from  among  the  motives  of  pros 
ecution  of  the  person,  were  thought  correctives  to  the  political  or 
personal  passions  which  might  prompt  unjust  or  revengeful  pros 
ecutions  to  the  death.  The  temptation  of  covetousness  was  re 
moved  when  conviction  could  involve  forfeiture  only  between 
judgment  and  execution! 


300  CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PROPERTY  OF 

But  a  confiscation  enforced  by  other  process  of  law  than  a  con 
viction  of  the  person  followed  by  a  bloody  end  was  subject  to  no 
such  objection,  and  it  was  justly  left  to  the  wisdom  and  modera 
tion  of  Congress  for  emergencies  like  the  present. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  the  restriction  of  confiscation  in  conse 
quence  of  conviction  and  attainder  to  the  life  of  the  person  con 
victed  is  not  restricted  to  lands,  and  still  more  certainly  has  no 
reference  to  estates  tail.  They  were  liable  at  common  law  to  for 
feiture  by  attainder  under  their  form  of  conditional  fees,  though 
singularly  enough  a  distinguished  senator  assumes  the  contrary ; 
they  were  exempted  for  a  while  by  the  construction  of  the  statute 
"  De  donis  conditionalibus,"  but  lost  their  exemption  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII. 

Such  attempts  to  escape  a  constitutional  difficulty  merely  dis 
credit  all  defense  of  the  Confiscation  Bills. 

The  Constitution  means  just  what  it  says,  and  the  opponents 
of  confiscation  try  to  make  it  mean  what  it  does  not  say.  Leave 
that  style  of  argument  to  them,  in  common  with  those  strict  con- 
structionists  who  have  found  the  denial  of  powers  to  Congress  the 
most  effectual  way  of  leaving  the  government  disarmed  and  pow 
erless  in  the  face  of  rebellion  in  arms. 

The  real  explanation  of  the  restriction,  as  well  as  of  the  careful 
definition  of  treason,  I  think  I  have  above  given.  It  indicates  the 
desire  to  exclude  political  persecution,  but  not  to  deprive  the  gov 
ernment  of  any  power  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  the  govern 
ment  against  the  temptation  of  ambition  or  the  violence  of  insub 
ordinate  factions. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  neither  of  the  provisions  respecting  trea 
son  prevents  the  punishment  of  acts  which  amount  to  treason  un 
der  other  names  and  free  from  those  restrictions.  The  traitors 
who  burned  the  Maryland  bridges  and  shot  the  Massachusetts 
men  on  the  19th  of  April  were  guilty  of  treason,  but  they  were 
also  guilty  of  resisting  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  of  a  riot, 
and  of  obstructing  mail  routes,  and  for  any  of  those  crimes  any 
punishment,  any  confiscation  may  be  constitutionally  imposed  as 
the  consequence  of  the  judgment,  and  one  witness  may  prove  them. 

Still,  the  constitutional  provision  is  a  salutary  admonition  in 
favor  of  moderation  specially  suited  to  these  times. 

Very  sincerely  your  friend,          HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

lion.  Justin  S.  Morrill,  Washington. 


CONFISCATION  OF  THE  PROPERTY  OF  3Q1 


Baltimore,  Md.,  June  15,  18G2. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — In  the  hasty  note  of  the  6th  of  June,  I  singu 
larly  enough  forgot  to  mention  the  most  pointed  and  conclusive 
authority  for  confiscation  by  emancipation. 

The  laws  of  the  United  States  in  the  District  of  Columbia  pro 
hibited  the  importation  of  slaves  for  sale  or  residence,  declared 
the  slave  imported  free,  and  punished  the  importer  loyjine. 

These  laws  were  adopted  by  Congress  from  the  laws  of  Vir 
ginia  and  Maryland.  They  have  been  repeatedly  enforced  in 
both  those  States.  Every  gentleman  practicing  in  the  courts  of 
the  district  has  enforced  the  freedom  vested  by  those  laws.  I 
have  myself,  in  more  than  one  instance,  successfully  asserted  the 
claim  before  the  -courts  of  the  District  and  of  Virginia,  and  the 
Supreme  Court  has  sustained,  in  repeated  instances,  the  validity 
of  the  law.  The  most  recent  case  that  I  recall  is  that  of  Ehodes 
vs.  Bell  (2  Howard,  397),  decided  in  1844. 

Those  are  old  laws,  passed  in  the  good  old  times,  before  men 
were  smitten  with  madness.  But  the  compromise  acts  of  Mr. 
Clay,  passed  in  1850,  embody  the  same  principle.  The  law  of 
1850  forbidding  the  introduction  of  slaves  into  the  District  of 
Columbia-  for  sale,  declared  the  slave  so  imported  liberated  and 
free.  No  greater  name  than  Mr.  Clay  can  be  cited  on  any  con 
stitutional  question,  and  the  name  of  President  Fillmore  ought 
surely  to  satisfy  the  most  timid  of  conservatives.  Never  were 
laws  more  keenly  contested,  more  gravely  considered,  or  adopted 
by  abler  men  than  the  famous  compromise  acts  of  1850 ;  and  it 
would  seem  that  a  Republican  Congress  might  safely  err  in  com 
pany  with  the  men  of  1850,  than  be  right  with  the  doubtful 
friends  or  secret  foes  of  the  republic  in  1862. 

These  laws  and  these  judgments  of  the  courts  under  them  dis 
pose  of  the  whole  question  of  confiscation  by  emancipation,  with 
out  indictment  and  conviction  of  the  guilty  person,  but  by  civil 
process  on  behalf  of  the  person  freed  for  the  master's  illegal  act. 

The  process  for  enforcing  the  freedom  of  the  slave  was  by  suit 
in  the  name  of  the  negro  against  the  owner  for  freedom,  in  the 
form  of  an  ordinary  action  of  trespass,  and  the  title  to  freedom 
was  vested  by  operation  of  law  immediately  on  the  consummation 
of  the  act  of  forfeiture,  and  the  suit  was  merely  the  judicial  form 
of  authenticating  the  title  the  law  had  vested. 


302  THOSE  ENGAGED  IN  REBELLION. 

If  you  see  fit  to  publish  this  note  in  confirmation  and  illustra 
tion  of  the  views  formerly  presented,  you  are  at  liberty  to  do  so. 
Had  I  thought  of  this  case,  so  very  familiar  in  my  legal  experience 
and  in  that  of  every  gentleman  of  the  bar  in  this  region,  I  should 
have  spared  you  a  long  dissertation  by  this  decisive  authority. 
Very  sincerely  your  friend,  H.  WINTER  DAVIS. 

Hon.  Justin  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  HUE  AND  CRY  A  SHAM.— 
CONFISCATION  AND  EMANCIPATION. 

ON  the  30th  of  October,  1862,  Mr.  Davis  addressed  a  very  large  meet 
ing  in  Concert  Hall,  at  Newark,  New  Jersey,  on  the  condition  of  the 
country,  and  directed  his  argument  especially  against  the  "Peace  and 
Recognition"  party,  then  growing  up,  and  threatening  to  carry  the  North 
ern  elections.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks  (of  which  only  an  incom 
plete  account  has  been  taken  or  published)  he  said : 

"In  arms,  they  (the  rebels)  will  defy  you;  disarmed,  they  will 
beg  for  terms.  But  there  are  persons  who  are  opposed  to  waging 
a  war  of  subjugation !  With  the  usual  cunning  of  friends  of  trai 
tors,  they  attempt  to  delude  you  into  the  supposition  that  because 
the  South  may  be  beaten  in  arms,  therefore  it  will  be  reduced  to 
slavery.  That  is  at  its  option.  If  it  shall  persistently  refuse  to 
accept  the  benefits  of  free  government  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  then  the  question  is  presented  to  us,  If  men  per 
versely  refuse  to  govern  themselves  under  our  laws,  whether  we 
shall  therefore  sacrifice  our  nation  and  our  independence,  permit 
anarchy  because  of  their  refusal,  or  govern  them  by  law  ?  The 
question  will  be  then,  Shall  we  be  destroyed,  and  the  government 
broken  into  a  divided  territory,  or  shall  we,  when  there  is  no  other 
way,  subject  and  keep  in  subjection  those  who  will  neither  govern 
themselves  under  the  laws  nor  submit  to  them  ?  I  have  no  hesi 
tation  in  saying,  put  what  meaning  you  please  on  subjection,  that 
their  subjection  means  my  freedom." 

Referring  to  the  threats  then  made  that  the  army  would  rebel  if  General  M'Clel- 
lan  were  removed  from  command,  he  said  : 

"Democrats  tell  us  that  they  alone  can  carry  on  a  successful 
war.  But  the  War  of  1812  had  Mr.  Clay  for  its  civil  leader,  and 
General  Scott  for  one  of  its  military  leaders,  and  neither  of  them 
was  thought  to  be  much  of  a  Democrat.  We  then  had  an  Indian 
war,  and  that  was  managed  by  General  Harrison.  Then  came 
the  Mexican  War ;  and  the  civil  mismanagement  of  it  was  done 


304  THE  DEMOCRATIC  HUE  AND  CRY  A  SHAM. 

by  Mr.  Polk,  while  what  was  done  in  the  field  by  military  chiefs, 
who  won  it,  was  done  by  Scott  and  Taylor. 

"  The  nearest  approach  to  a  war  conducted  by  Democrats  is  the 
present  rebellion.  They  got  it  up,  they  began  it,  and  the  generals 
now  in  highest  command  on  both  sides  are  Democrats.  Whether 
they,  or  either  of  them,  have  been  successful  up  to  this  time,  you 
can  judge  as  well  as  I. 

"And  I  will  say,  on  my  own  account,  although  it  may  not  be 
popular  to  say  it,  that  in  my  opinion  SLOWNESS  is  not  the  way  to 
prostrate  this  rebellion.  And  say  what  you  please  of  '  military 
science,'  I  think  the  audacity  and  perversity  of  Zachary  Taylor 
at  Buena  Vista  would  have  stamped  out  this  rebellion  a  year  ago." 

Mr.  Davis  then  referred  to  the  Democratic  clamor  about  habeas  corpus,  and  re 
called  the  case  of  General  Jackson  at  New  Orleans,  of  Jefferson  in  Wilkinson's  case, 
of  General  M'Clellan's  arrest  of  the  Maryland  Legislature,  and  of  the  late  proceed 
ings  in  Baltimore  by  Generals  Dix  and  Wool,  all  Democrats. 

"All  such  hue  and  cry  was  a  sham.  They  mean  to  stop  the 
war.  These  men  are  insidiously  referring  to  particular  instances 
of  interference  with  rights,  which,  indeed,  are,  in  my  judgment,  il 
legal  and  unnecessary,  and  hereafter  to  be  rebuked,  but  which  can 
not  now  be  rebuked  without  endangering  the  public  cause  and 
the  safety  of  all. 

"  Oh !  but  they  say  the  President  is  an  '  Abolitionist.'  He  and 
his  party  have  abolished  slavery  in  the  District.  Do  they  mean 
to  re-establish  it  there  ?  If  so,  let  us  know  it ;  if  not,  why  howl  ? 
*  Oh !  but  it  is  a  great  outrage  upon  private  rights ;  and  the  Proc 
lamation  ! — it  tends  to  disturb  and  overthrow  all  the  foundations 
of  society  in  the  Southern  States  !'  Suppose  it  does.  Are  we,  at 
this  time,  to  prevent  any  such  disaster  which  they,  the  rebels  alone, 
have  rendered  possible?  I  have  my  difficulties  about  the  Proc 
lamation,  but  not  upon  their  grounds.  Their  objection  is  not  that 
it  is  unconstitutional,  not  that  it  is  illegal,  but  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  their  friends,  and  our  enemies,  in  the  South.  And  on  those 
grounds  on  which  they  oppose  it  I  am  in  favor  of  it.  '  Unconsti 
tutional!'  '  illegal !'  grant  it.  'Imprudent !'  concede  it.  I  always 
like  to  concede  every  thing  they  say,  and  then  deduce  the  proper 
consequences  from  that  with  which  they  attempt  to  deceive  the 
people.  Suppose  it  is  unconstitutional — it  is  an  unconstitutional 
act  that  hurts  no  loyal  State.  Grant  that  it  is  illegal — its  illegal 
ity  does  not  touch  any  man  in  any  State  not  now  in  rebellion" 


CONFISCATION  AND  EMANCIPATION.  305 

Referring  to  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  he  said  : 

"  If  that  proclamation  is  to  be  effectual,  it  must  have  the  force 
of  law — it  must  have  the  force  of  a  national  guarantee — not  mere 
ly  of  the  President's  intention.  Those  who  are  to  be  emancipated 
thereby  must  know  that  they  will  be  sustained  in  their  refusal  to 
do  their  masters'  bidding.  They  must  know  that  they  are  to  re 
fuse  for  their  own  profit.  If  we  give  them  no  interest  in  the  result 
of  the  war,  they  can  take  none.  They  must  be  made  to  know 
that  by  the  law  of  the  land ;  by  the  duty,  not  merely  by  the  inten 
tion  of  the  President ;  guarantees,  not  offers  of  freedom  ;  not  dec 
larations  of  freedom  if  they  can  snatch  it,  but  reality  of  freedom 
if  they  will  help  to  win  it,  shall  be  maintained  to  the  full  extent 
that  the  government  maintains  the  integrity  of  its  territory.  Un 
til  that  is  done,  you  have  nothing  but  promises  on  paper ;  when 
that  is  done,  you  have  four  millions  of  allies  on  the  territory,  of 
your  enemies."  "If  Congress  at  its  coming  session  will  recom 
mend  the  adoption  of  an  amendment  to' the  Constitution  declaring 
that  no  State  shall  tolerate  slavery  within  its  borders,  extinguish 
ing  slavery  throughout  the  United  States,  with  a  provision,  if 
they  see  fit,  for  compensating  the  owners  in  loyal  States,  and  such 
amendment  is  finally  ratified,  then  you  will  have  gone  to  the  root 
and  core  of  the  matter. 

"  In  my  judgment,  we  ought  also  to  have  a  Confiscation  Bill — 
one  going  deeper  into  the  skin  than  the  flimsy  thing  passed  by  the 
last  Congress — a  bill  that  will  touch  the  lands  of  the  leaders  of  the 
rebellion ;  not  for  life,  but  in  the  fee  simple.  Then  why  not  dis 
tribute  those  lands,  as  public  lands,  to  the  negroes  who  shoulder 
the  musket  ?  Have  they  not  received  bounties  before  for  services 
in  the  Revolution,  and  prize-money  for  service  in  the  navy  ?  You 
can  not  bribe  the  negroes  to  fight  for  nothing,  with  the  certainty 
of  being  re-enslaved  after  the  war.  He  is  better  off  in  slavery 
than  that.  But  wild  '  Abolitionists'  do  not  talk  in  this  way.  They 
seem  to  think  you  have  but  to  utter  a  proclamation,  and  the  negro 
will  straightway  rise  to  the  clouds  and  sit  in  freedom  at  once. 
Then  there  are  some,  and  the  President  is  among  them,  who  labor 
under  the  delusion  that  you  c-an  free  the  negroes  and  send  them 
off  at  once  to  a  foreign  land.  The  thing  is  an  impossibility ;  and 
if  it  were  practicable,  it  would  not  be  desirable.  The  lands  in  the 
Southern  States  must  be  cultivated,  and  the  negroes  will  remain 
there,  and  will  have  to  cultivate  them,  even  if  it  were  possible,  or 

U 


306  THE  DEMOCRATIC  HUE  AND  CRY  A  SHAM,  ETC. 

in  the  power  of  the  nation,  pecuniarily  or  physically,  to  remove 
four  millions  of  them  from  the  country.  They  will  remain  until 
the  natural  course  of  emigration  in  a  long  series  of  years  may 
transfer  them  to  some  other  clime  which  they  shall  think  will  be 
better  for  them,  unless,  indeed,  collision  and  a  war  of  races  should 
ensue  in  the  Confederate  States  if  they  can  accomplish  their  inde 
pendence,  and  in  that  case  they  may  have  another  St.  Domingo. 

"  But  let  us  go  on  with  our  heroic  soldiers,  and  let  such  changes 
be  made  as  the  President  shall  see  fit,  and  with  the  devotion  al 
ready  shown  by  a  people  that  has  so  far  transcended  in  resources 
the  devotion  of  their  authorities  in  disposing  of  them — with  that 
indomitable  resolution  never  to  submit,  or  to  be  content  with  any 
thing  less  than  the  subjugation  of  rebellion,  the  defeat  of  rebels, 
and  the  victorious  maintenance  of  the  whole  republic,  we  shall,  to 
day  or  to-morrow,  or  sixty  clays  hence,  or  in  the  spring,  or  next 
year,  or  two  or  three  years  hence,  utterly  and  forever  stamp  out 
this  rebellion." 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

IT  was  in  February  of  1863  that  the  movement  in  favor  of  emancipa 
tion  in  Maryland  began  to  take  definite  shape  in  active  political  move 
ments  to  that  end.  It  could  only  be  accomplished  by  a  change  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  State,  for  which  purpose  the  Legislature  to  be  elected 
in  November  of  that  year  would  have  to  favor  the  submitting  to  the  peo 
ple  the  question  of  call  of  a  Convention ;  and  the  canvass  of  the  State 
previous  to  that  election  would  have  to  be  carried  on  against  all  the 
influences  and  power  which  slavery  in  Maryland  could  bring  to  its  de 
fense.  In  these  movements  Mr.  Davis  took  a  principal  part ;  and  to 
that  part,  and  to  the  efforts  of  the  Hon.  J.  A.  J.  Cresswell,  was  due,  in 
great  measure,  the  complete  success  of  the  movement.  Mr.  Davis  visit 
ed  various  parts  of  the  State,  and  spoke  to  large  meetings  at  Elkton  on 
the  6th  of  October,  at  Towsontown  on  the  loth,  at  Salisbury  on  the 
24th,  at  Snow  Hill  on  the  27th,  and  at  Baltimore  on  the  28th  of  Octo 
ber.  The  election  in  November  resulted  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the 
measure.  At  the  same  election  Mr.  Davis  was  returned  without  oppo 
sition  from  the  Baltimore  district  to  Congress,  and  Mr.  Cresswell  from 
the  district  composed  of  the  eight  counties  on  the  Eastern  Shore. 

Of  the  speeches  made  by  Mr.  Davis  during  that  campaign  in  favor  of 
emancipation  no  adequate  report  was  made,  or  record  or  account  suffi 
cient  to  enable  us  to  reproduce  them  in  this  collection.  A  resume  of 
some  of  these  speeches  may  be  found  in  some  of  the  Baltimore  papers  of 
the  9th,  16th,  and  29th  of  October,  1863. 

In  September  Mr.  Davis  had  been  invited  to  take  part  in  the  canvass 
in  Pennsylvania  for  the  gubernatorial  election  there.  In  compliance,  he 
delivered  the  following  speech  at  Concert  Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  on  the 
24th  of  September  : 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, — The  election  that 
is  now  pending  in  Pennsylvania  and  that  which  is  now  pending 
in  the  State  of  Maryland  will  go  very  far,  though  perhaps  in  very- 
unequal  degrees,  to  determine  the  presidential  contest  of  next 
year.  In  my  judgment,  the  election  of  a  Democratic  President, 
or,  if  he  prefer  the  term,  a  Conservative  President,  will  be  the  end 
of  the  war,  and.  with  the  end  of  the  war,  in  my  judgment,  the  end 
of  the  Union  of  these  States.  It  will  be  the  end,  likewise,  of  that 


308  SO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

great  result,  though  not  the  original  object  of  the  war — the  change 
of  the  social  relations  in  the  rebellious  States,  which  have  occa 
sioned  our  present  disturbances.  (Applause.) 

If  it  be  of  any  moment  to  any  one  here  that  the  conduct  of  the 
national  affairs  shall  remain  in  the  hands  of  those  who  represent 
the  principles  which  now  preside  over  their  conduct — if  there  be 
any  one  here  who  thinks  that  the  war  ought  to  be  continued  un 
til  every  rebellious  weapon  sinks  in  submission  to  the  national 
authority — if  there  be  any  one  who  thinks  it  is  worth  while,  after 
having  had  experience  of  the  mischiefs  that  grow  from  a  vicious 
social  organization,  that  we  shall  not  be  twice  jeoparded  by  the 
same  cause  when  we  have  the  opportunity  to  root  it  out,  let  that 
person  bear  in  mind  that  on  the  vote  of  Pennsylvania  this  fall  de 
pends,  in  a  great  measure,  that  result.  (Applause.) 

The  gentleman  who  is  competing  with  your  present  distin 
guished  and  patriotic  executive  for  the  position  of  governor  of 
this  Commonwealth  does  not  leave  you  in  the  doubts  with  which 
Mr.  Seymour,  and  other  gentlemen  less  candid  or  more  prudent, 
veil  their  opinion.  Here,  we  understand  our  opponents  formally 
declare  that  the  Democratic  party  alone  can  restore  the  Union ; 
that  it  can  not  be  restored  by  arms ;  that  it  can  only  be  restored 
by  peace  and  conciliation ;  and  that  they  are  the  only  persons 
who  can  so  restore  it.  They  were  in  power  when  the  rebellion 
broke  out.  Why  did  they  not  arrest  it  ?  (Great  applause.)  They 
had  all  the  factions  that  called  themselves  Democratic  united — 
could  have  prevented  the  election  of  the  gentleman  who  they  now 
say  has  brought  on  the  war.  Why  did  they  not  subordinate  their 
internal  party  differences  to  the  patriotic  purpose  of  averting  an 
otherwise  inevitable  war  ?  (Applause.)  They  say  that  they  alone 
can  restore  the  Union,  and  by  peace.  Then  why  did  they  break 
it  up  ?  ("  That's  it,"  and  applause.)  They  are  very  fond  of  ask 
ing  who  is  responsible  for  the  war,  and  I  take  great  pleasure  in 
responding,  the  Democratic  party  that  ruled  the  country  for  thirty 
years.  (Great  applause.)  And  I  say  that,  with  the  kindliest  re 
gard,  with  the  utmost  respect,  with  the  greatest  deference  for  the 
honest  members  of  that  party,  who,  whatever  may  have  been 
their  judgments  before  the  rebellion  broke  out,  saw  by  the  flames 
of  civil  war  the  dangerous  path  they  trod,  and  joined  their  life 
long  political  opponents  in  the  right  path.  They  who  now  arro- 
opate  to  themselves  the  reputation  and  the  name  of  the  Democratic 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  309 

party  are  the  mere  refuse  that  remained  behind  when  the  patriotic 
elements  withdrew  for  the  defense  of  the  nation.  (Great  applause. ) 
If,  when  numbering  many  of  the  great  men,  many  of  the  good 
men,  many  of  the  patriotic  men,  many  of  the  eminent  statesmen 
of  the  country,  wise  in  council  and  firm  in  action,  they  could  not 
prevent  the  war,  who  will  believe  that  this  wretched  remnant  can 
stop  the  war?  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Why  did  the  South 
rebel  ?  Because  they  had  lost  the  majority  of  the  North.  There 
were  a  majority  still  at  the  North  calling  themselves  Democrats, 
but  they  were  Democrats  that  would  not  do  what  the  Southern 
men  desired.  They  committed  themselves  so  far  in  favor  of  the 
Southern  policy  at  the  North  that  they  lost  the  confidence  of 
their  fellow-citizens  of  the  North,  and  with  their  confidence  lost 
their  votes ;  and  when  they  lost  their  votes,  the  Southern  men 
could  no  longer  depend  upon  them  to  protect  their  peculiar  in 
terest — they  smote  those  that  had  been  their  humble  servants  for 
two  generations  past.  (Applause.)  They  taught  Southern  Dem* 
ocrats  that  they  could  ask  no  humiliation  which  would  not  be 
yielded ;  and  that  all  who  were  not  Democrats  were  Abolitionists 
— stood  compurgators  for  every  lie,  and  enabled  them  to  imprint 
their  hate  and  fear  on  the  minds  of  the  Southern  people ;  and  now 
that  they  are  spurned  by  their  masters — now  the  wretched  rem 
nant  of  these  discarded  allies  (laughter),  these  worn-out  tools  of 
a  despotic  power  that  has  been  driven  to  rebellion — these  men 
venture  to  assume  to  lift  the  mighty  mace  of  the  old  Democratic 
party,  and  say,  "  We  can  restore  the  broken  and  shattered  Union 
that  all  combined  could  not  preserve."  (Laughter  and  applause.) 
Why,  men  of  the  United  States,  what  is  the  rebellion?  The 
Democratic  party  in  arms  in  the  South  and  in  sympathy  in  the 
North.  (Great  applause.)  What  Democrat  does  not  sympathize 
with  his  "  Southern  brethren  ?"  What  Seymour  does  not  speak 
of  them  as  his  "  friends  ?"  (Applause.)  They  restore  the  Union 
by  pacific  means !  That  means  that  they  will  stop  the  war.  We 
need  no  one  to  tell  us  that.  They  opposed  it  in  its  beginning ; 
they  have  maligned  it  to  the  present  day ;  they  have  embarrassed 
its  progress ;  they  have  vilified  those  that  conduct  it ;  they  have 
struggled  against  every  measure  essential  to  its  conduct.  Place 
them  in  power,  would  they  not  effectuate  their  own  purpose,  and 
let  it  drop  ?  Of  course,  peace  is  their  policy ! 

Opposed  to  the  war!     Of  course  they  are.     James  Buchanan, 


310  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

and  those  that  stood  around  him,  and  those  that  followed  him, 
said,  "  It  is  unconstitutional."  (Laughter.)  Are  they  honorable 
men,  and  can  they  disavow  the  words  of  their  chief;  or,  consider 
ing  the  value  the  Democrats  have  always  placed  upon  consistency 
when  consistent  with  their  interest,  are  they  likely  to  evade  the 
obligation  that  they  have  assumed,  to  treat  it  as  unconstitutional, 
and  therefore  to  stop  it  ? 

"Who  is  their  candidate  for  governor  in  Ohio?  Is  Yallandig- 
ham  for  restoring  the  Union  .by  suppressing  the  rebellion?  Who 
was  their  candidate  in  Connecticut  ?  The  namesake  of  the  New 
York  Seymour,  and,  better  than  the  namesake,  an  honest  avower 
of  the  opinions  which  the  other  dishonestly  concealed.  He  said 
that  peace  and  not  war,  the  arrest  of  bloodshed  and  not  the  sup 
pression  of  rebellion,  were  the  highest  purposes  that  any  statesman 
could  proclaim  for  himself.  Where  have  they  elected  a  Legisla 
ture  that  has  not  let  the  cloven  foot  appear?  What  say  my 
friends  from  New  Jersey,  that  I  see  around  me — is  Governor 
Parker  for  the  war  or  against  it  ?  Is  the  Legislature  of  New  Jer- 
fey  for  or  against  peace  resolutions  ?  Is  the  Legislature  of  Illinois 
lor  or  against  the  war?  Is  the  Legislature  of  Indiana  for  or 
against  the  war  ?  Where  have  the  resolutions  in  favor  of  an  im 
mediate  armistice  come  from  ?  Where  have  the  resolutions  pro 
posing  the  meeting  of  a  disloyal  Convention  in  the  city  of  Louis 
ville  come  from?  What  great  leading  man,  calling  himself  a 
Democrat  and  not  now  supporting  the  administration,  avows  him 
self  in  favor  of  prosecuting  the  war  to  the  bitter  end,  till  the  ban 
ners  of  rebellion  trail  in  the  dust  ?  Let  him  be  named — who  is 
he? 

John  Van  Buren  thought  it  would  be  worth  while  to  go  to 
Eichmond,  and  then  to  proclaim  an  armistice.  And  what  is  to 
be  done  with  the  armies  beyond  it  ? 

They  all  have  profound,  perfect  confidence  in  an  amnesty.  An 
amnesty  to  men  in  arms,  your  equals  on  the  battle-field,  as  often 
victorious  as  you  are,  inferior  in  numbers  and  resources,  but 
nerved  to  desperation  in  a  gigantic  conflict !  What  is  an  armis 
tice  but  something  for  them  to  laugh  at  ? 

Peace!  Scarcely  had  Mr.  Seward  put  forth  another  circular 
of  ill-starred  prophecies,  than,  as  if  to  show  you  how  far  "our 
Southern  brethren"  are  from  dreaming  of  peace,  they  rush  two  to 
one  upon  Kosecrans  and  make  him  struggle  to  hold  his  ground 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  311 

even.  Judge  Woodward,  I  suppose,  would  appear  upon  the  bat 
tle-field  at  Chattanooga  with  a  laurel  wreath  on  his  head  and  an 
olive-branch  in  his  hand  (laughter)  bidding  back  the  foe  from  that 
terrific  strife.  Do  they  suppose,  gentlemen,  that  the  American 
people  are  born  fools  ?  Do  they  suppose  that  their  word,  instiga 
ted  by  the  'desire  to  attain  power,  will  make  the  people  believe 
what  every  man  in  all  the  rebel  region,  in  every  place  of  authori 
ty,  loudly  denies.  Yallandigham  told  us  that  every  where  in  his 
progress  through  the  nether  regions  he  heard  nothing  but  cries  of 
peace  and  union.  Why  did  he  not  name  the  man  in  authority 
that  hinted  at  any  terms  that  they  were  willing  to  accept  or  even 
to  consider  ?  Did  he  not  know  from  the  temper  of  the  people  of 
this  country,  their  earnest  desire  for  peace,  their  weariness  of  the 
war,  the  exhaustion  of  their  resources,  the  harrowing  of  their  affec 
tions  by  the  desolation  of  the  family  circle,  that  any  man  who 
would  go  to  the  South  and  bring  back  terms  of  peace  of  any  kind, 
even  touching  on  and  bordering  upon  humiliation,  would  receive 
the  acclaim  of  two  thirds  of  the  American  people.  Would  he  be 
now  skulking  over  the  border  in  Canada,  or  would  he  not  rather 
be  treading  triumphantly  over  the  heads  of  thousands  of  admiring 
fellow-citizens,  as  they  hail  him  the  harbinger  of  the  peace  that  he 
proclaimed?  His  silence  is  the  falsification  of  his  wretched  in 
vention.  (Applause.) 

""Somebody  whispered  over  the  Eappahannock  the  other  day  that 
peace  was  near.  They  found  out  the  only  officer  that  had  been 
upon  the  banks  that  day,  and  language  can  not  exceed  the  epi 
thets  of  scorn  and  hatred  with  which  he  received  the  mere  sug 
gestion  of  peace — except  upon  terms  that  every  Democrat  is  will 
ing  to  receive  to-morrow.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  The  line  of 
the  Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Potomac,  the  payment  of 
the  expenses  of  the  war  and  damages  for  our  outrages — who  is 
ready  for  that  here  ?  ("  None,"  "  None") — the  surrender  of  West 
ern  Virginia  and  her  heroic  loyalists  ?  ("  Never") — the  yielding 
of  Kentucky,  that  they  have  insolently  called  a  member  of  their 
Confederacy,  though  no  officer  would  dare  set  foot  within  her  loy 
al  limits  ? — the  return  of  the  disenthralled  and  rescued  martyrs 
of  Eastern  Tennessee?  (great  applause)— now  that  daylight  is 
dawning  on  North  Alabama  and  North  Georgia,  the  plunging  them 
into  hopeless  and  endless  night — the  return  of  Missouri  to  the  dom 
ination  that  undertook  to  drive  her  from  the  aesris  of  the  Union ! 


312  NO  PEACE   BEFORE  VICTORY. 

These  are  the  terms,  and  the  only  terms  any  man  has  ever  heard 
uttered  above  a  whisper  within  the  Southern  country  ?  If  Judge 
Woodward  and  his  like  mean  that  in  the  face  of  these  terms  they 
are  ready  to  stop  the  war,  then  eternal  will  be  the  disgrace  of 
Pennsylvania  if,  knowing  that,  she  elect  him  for  her  chief  magis 
trate.  (Applause.)  If  he  do  not  mean  to  accept  these,  the  only 
terms  that  have  ever  been  uttered,  then  the  people  of  Pennsylva 
nia  deserve  to  be  placed  in  their  own  hospitals  if  they  accept  a 
man  to  regulate  and  govern  their  Commonwealth  who  says  he  is 
for  peace  and  an  armistice  when  these  are  the  only  terms  that  are 
possible.  (Applause.)  An  armistice  for  what  purpose?  To  ar 
gue  with  maniacs  ?  to  debate  on  the  field  of  battle  ?  or  to  realize 
the  darling  idea  of  the  Democratic  disunionists  to  palsy  the  arm 
of  the  United  States,  to  arrest  the  impetus  of  its  onward  advance, 
to  give  the  people  in  rebellion  time  to  breathe,  the  men  stricken 
to  the  knee  time  to  gain  their  feet,  the  men  whose  resources  are 
exhausted  an  opportunity  to  replace  them,  to  break  up  the  block 
ade,  to  open  their  ports  to  foreign  commerce,  to  give  them  the  rec 
ognition  that  could  never  be  withdrawn,  not  merely  of  belliger 
ents,  but  of  parties  holding  a  position  competent  to  deal  on  equal 
terms  with  the  United  States.  How  long  after  an  armistice  would 
the  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  be  delayed  by  En 
gland  or  France?  How  would  they  remain  idle  during  the  con 
ferences,  how  long  delay  to  make  their  arrangements,  not  merely 
to  mediate  between  powers,  but  to  intervene  in  arms  ?  The  mere 
proposal  of  the  armistice  reveals  the  traitorous  purpose  that  re 
mains  behind  it. 

My  friends,  the  reception  that  you  have  given  our  soldiers  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  shows  that  you  at  least  are  for  no  arm 
istice  (great  applause) — that  you  at  least  appreciate,  without  the 
necessity  of  argument  from  me,  that  an  armistice  is  equivalent  to 
the  end  of  the  war,  and  that  the  end  of  the  war  leaves  the  South 
independent.  We  can  all  now  see  where  our  opponents  stand. 
They  are  opposed  to  every  measure  for  conducting  the  war.  Ah ! 
they  are  opposed  to  the  Conscription  Act ;  yet  they  do  not  volun 
teer.  How  can  we  get  soldiers  ?  They  are  opposed  to  the  $300 
clause  in  it ;  yet  they  have  generally  paid  the  $800.  (Laughter.) 
They  are  opposed  to  negro  soldiers;  yet  negro  soldiers  are  the 
poor  man's  substitute,  who  can  not  pay  the  $300.  (Applause.) 
They  are  opposed  to  confiscation ;  yet  confiscation  alone  can 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  313 

break  the  power  of  the  leaders  of  Southern  politics.  (Applause.) 
They  are  opposed  to  emancipation;  yet  emancipation  alone  can 
break  the  oligarchy  that  has  brought  on  the  war.  (Great  ap 
plause,  and  "  Three  cheers  for  emancipation.")  They  are  op 
posed  to  discretionary  arrests,  which  they  call  arbitrary  arrests. 
They  opposed  them  first  because  the  President  could  not  suspend 
the  writ  of 'habeas  corpus — which  was  all  true.  They  oppose  them 
now,  though  Congress  has  suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
which  nobody  denies  their  right  to  do.  (Cheers  and  applause.) 
They  opposed  them,  not  because  they  were  illegal,  nor  because 
they  were  arbitrary,  but  because,  though  legal,  the  discretion  of 
the  President  might  think  rebel  sympathizers  suspicious  charac 
ters.  (Cheers  and  applause.) 

They  are,  then,  opposed  to  all  the  means  of  conducting  the 
war ;  they  are,  then,  in  plain  English,  opposed  to  the  farther  con 
duct  of  the  war.  That  means  that  they  are  in  favor,  whenever 
and  wherever  they  can  get  in  power,  of  throwing  themselves 
against  the  government  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  They  attempt 
ed  in  Illinois  to  take  the  military  power  from  the  hands  of  a  loyal 
governor.  They  have  attempted  every  where  to  elect  disloyal 
governors  pledged  to  embarrass  the  United  States  in  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  laws.  Seymour,  knowing  that  the  riot  would  embar 
rass  the  government  of  the  United  States,  stood  paralyzed  and 
powerless  before  his  "  friends."  (Laughter.)  They  discussed  the 
propriety  of  recalling  from  the  army  the  contingents  of  the  various 
States.  The  candidate  for  Governor  of  Maine,  lately  so  over 
whelmingly  beaten  by  that  patriotic  State  (applause),  was  asked 
whether,  in  the  event  of  his  election,  he  would  recall  from  the 
armies  the  troops  of  Maine.  Instead  of  repelling  with  indignation 
a  question  which  was  a  humiliation  to  any  man  except  a  traitor, 
he  said,  "  When  Governor  Seymour  recalls  the  troops  of  New 
York,  and  the  Governor  of  New  Jersey  recalls  the  troops  of  New 
Jersey,  then  I  am  ready  to  recall  the  troops  of  Maine."  That 
marked  him  for  a  traitor ;  but  he  is  mistaken  in  supposing  that 
any  regiment  or  any  company  of  the  troops  of  Maine  would  obey 
his  illegal  and  treasonable  order.  (Great  applause.)  Doubtless 
he  thought  they  would  obey,  and  that  order  would  have  been  is 
sued  the  day  after  his  election.  The  people  took  care  that  he 
should  not  have  the  opportunity.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Let 
them  get  the  control  by  any  accident,  by  any  thoughtlessness,  by 


314  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

any  cowardice  or  timidity,  by  any  weariness  of  the  war  or  impa 
tience  of  taxation,  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  and  instantly 
every  war  measure  will  be  clogged  in  that  House ;  appropriations 
will  be  resisted ;  conditions  will  be  annexed ;  the  repeal  of  the 
laws  that  they  have  been  assailing  will  be  compelled  by  refusing 
supplies  to  the  government ;  the  government  will  stand  paralyzed 
in  the  presence  of  its  armed  enemies. 

If  these  are  their  purposes,  then  how  are  we  to  treat  them  and 
how  are  we  to  conduct  the  government?  In  my  judgment,  fel 
low-citizens  of  the  United  States,  we  all  have  a  common  interest 
in  this  great  struggle,  and  what  is  the  interest  of  Pennsylvania  is 
the  interest  of  Maryland.  (Applause.)  The  line  that  so  long  has 
been  of  ill  omen,  I  take  it,  was  abolished  by  the  day  of  Gettys 
burg.  (Great  applause.) 

The  current  of  events  is  daily  sweeping  away  the  only  mark  of 
disunion  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland — their  internal 
recognition  of  slavery,  or  their  refusal  to  recognize  slavery.  We 
stand  together,  and  ought  to  stand  together  as  one  man  in  main 
taining  the  integrity  of  the  government,  which  more  entirely 
crushes  us  than  any  other  portion  of  the  Confederacy  if  it  fall  in 
ruin  about  our  ears.  How,  then,  shall  it  be  maintained  ?  I  say, 
first,  by  filling  up  the  depleted  ranks  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac.  (Great  applause.)  Whether  the  government  see  it  or  not, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  this  day  there  has  been  but  one 
decisive  point  upon  which  one  decisive  battle  could  end  the  war, 
and  that  has  been  Virginia.  It  has  never  been  a  question  of 
marching  to  Eichmond ;  it  has  been  a  question  of  dispersing  and 
destroying  the  army  of  General  Lee,  and  that  has  never  been  dif 
ficult  to  find.  What  the  government  has  needed  is  a  singleness 
of  purpose,  bending  its  unbroken  energies  to  the  annihilation  of 
that  army,  and  with  it  would  crumble  the  Southern  republic. 
(Applause.)  Victories  on  other  points  are  victories  of  detail ; 
victory  on  that  point  is  decisive,  final,  and  overwhelming.  Peace 
will  follow  the  destruction  of  that  army ;  the  war  will  endure  un 
til  that  army  is  destroyed.  An  armistice  will  not  annihilate  it ; 
a  mediation  will  not  paralyze  it ;  no  election  of  a  Democrat  will 
do  any  thing  except  accomplish  its  purposes,  without  bloodshed, 
for  it.  The  war  drags  its  length  now  along  because  a  Presiden 
tial  election  is  only  a  year  off,  and  the  rebels  of  the  South  count 
on  having  their  friends  in  office.  ("Never,  never.")  If  they 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  315 

have  to  make  terms,  they  know  the  terms  will  be  better  with  a 
Democrat  than  with  men  who  are  devoted  to  the  integrity,  and 
the  power,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  republic,  and  therefore  they 
mean,  so  long  as  there  is  a  man  left  in  the  Southern  country,  and 
as  much  as  in  them  lies,  that  there  shall  no  semblance  of  peace 
appear  until  a  Democrat  mount  the  presidential  chair. 

The  way  to  peace,  therefore,  fellow-citizens,  is  over  the  battle 
field,  and  there  is  no  other  path.  •  If  a  lion  lie  in  that  path  that 
you  are  afraid  to  meet,  or  one  too  powerful  for  you  to  meet,  then 
give  up  the  war.  If  you 'are  unwilling  to  make  that  admission, 
then  prosecute  it  with  every  energy  that  you  can  summon,  of 
money  and  of  men ;  with  no  hesitation  ;  no  stinting ;  no  critical 
spirit ;  no  inclination  to  find  fault :  mourning  errors,  not  casting 
them  in  the  teeth  of  those  in  authority ;  countenancing  them  with 
your  earnest  support,  with  the  firm  conviction  that  because  there 
are  traitors  in  the  North,  every  loyal  man  must  double  himself  in 
strength,  energy,  and  devotion.  (Applause.)  And  when  they 
menace  you  with  insurrection  here,  tell  them  the  sooner  it  begins 
the  sooner  it  will  be  ended.  (Great  applause.)  Let  them  under 
stand  that  it  is  wholly  immaterial  to  you  whether  they  begin  the 
civil  war  now,  or  two  years  hence,  when,  having  under  false  pre 
tenses  crept  into  power,  betrayed  the  nation,  negotiated  a  hollow 
semblance  of  peace  with  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  brought 
discord  to  every  Northern  door,  the  beginning  of  desolation,  the 
introduction  of  civil  war,  the  impossibility  of  keeping  the  residue 
of  the  States  together,  will  be  manifest  to  all  men — the  sooner  the 
better.  That  party  has  always  been  magnificent  in  bullying — do 
not  be  frightened  by  their  violence.  (Applause.) 

But  how  else,  gentlemen,  shall  you  end  the  war  ?  More  than 
a  million  of  men  of  the  white  race  have  volunteered  their  serv 
ices  in  defense  of  American  liberty  against  an  oligarchy  of  slave 
holders,  and  'until  recently  their  farms  have  been  cultivated  in 
quiet,  their  laborers  have  been  untouched ;  they  have  suffered  by 
the  blockade,  they  have  suffered  by  invasion  when  our  armies 
touched  them;  the  great  mass  of  their  agricultural  labor  has  gone 
on  as  regularly  as  in  the  halcyon  days  when  cotton  was  king.  I 
propose  to  invade  the  quiet  realm  of  this  discrowned  king.  (Ap 
plause.)  There  are  four  millions  of  men  in  those  regions  on  our 
side.  (Applause.)  Who  opposes  the  arming  of  them  except  the 
Democratic  Conservatives?  They  are  slaves.  The  President  has 


315  NO  PEACE  BEFOEE  VICTORY. 

proclaimed  them  free.  (Applause.)  That  paper  confers  no  title ; 
it  can  only  b^  made  a  title  by  arms.  The  negro's  arm  is  ready  to 
execute  it.  Why  shall  he  not  be  allowed  to  do  it  ?  (Applause.) 
"  It  is  humiliating  to  white  soldiers  to  serve  in  the  same  ranks  with 
the  ne°roes !"  What  say  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  fifteen  or 
twenty  thousand  to  help  them  in  the  next  great  fight  ?  What 
said  General  Banks  at  Port  Hudson  ?  What  said  General  Gil- 
more  at  Fort  Wagner?  (Great  applause.)  Just  what  George 
Washington  of  the  Kevolution  said.  (Applause.)  Just  what 
Andrew  Jackson  at  New  Orleans  said.'  (Applause.)  Just  what 
Perry  on  Lake  Erie  saw.  (Applause.)  Just  what  Barney,  with 
his  negro  men  mingled  in  with  his  white  men  at  Bladensburg, 
saw,  when  other  men  ran  away.  Men  are  men  in  spite  of  the 
skin,  and  deeper  than  the  skin.  (Applause.)  The  first  martyr 
of  the  Boston  massacre  in  1770  was  a  negro  slave  leading  the 
white  men.  (Applause.)  One  of  the  heroes  of  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  living  forever  in  the  historic  canvas  of  Trumbull, 
and  living  more  immortally  on  the  page  of  Bancroft,  was  a  negro. 
(Applause.)  No  battle-field  of  the  Eevolution  that  was  not 
stained  by  their  blood.  The  men  of  that  day  shrank  at  first,  and 
came  to  it  afterward.  They  formed  no  separate  regiment ;  they 
mingled  in  with  the  rank  and  the  platoon  of  their  "  white  fellow- 
countrymen,"  as  Andrew  Jackson  called  them.  (Applause.) 
From  the  days  of  the  Eevolution  to  the  days  of  the  War  of  1812, 
prejudice  was  silent  before  reason — national  necessity  and  na 
tional  interest.  It  was  only  when  the  cotton  aristocracy  arose 
that  common  sense  was  driven  from  the  minds  of  men.  What 
do  thev  fear  half  so  much  as  a  negro  army  marching  through  the 
cotton-field  ? 

Gentlemen,  without  a  negro  army  an  attempt  at  emancipation 
is  idle.  The  President  has  proclaimed  emancipation.  A  procla 
mation  is  a  breath,  or  printer's  ink.  It  dies  of  itself  unless  there 
be  something  living  behind  it.  In  point  of  law,  no  court  will 
hold  it  a  valid  title  to  freedom  ;  that  is  my  judgment  as  a  lawyer. 
I  may  be  wrong,  but  it  is  my  judgment.  If  the  negroes  of  the 
South  are  to  render  us  any  material  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion,  they  must  have  a  title  to  freedom  that  they  will  under 
stand  to  be  effectual,  and  they  know  that  the  proclamation  is  not 
effectual  without  something  following  it — a  law  of  Congress  and 
arms.  They  must  farther  be  relieved  from  the  idea,  which  has 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  317 

been  most  unfortunately  countenanced  in  certain  high  quarters,- 
that  after  they  have  fought  the  battles  of  liberty,  and  have  aided 
us  to  win  back  our  territory  and  consolidate  our  empire — that 
after  an  indefinite  period  of  service  upon  public  works  in  the  'ma 
laria  of  the  South,  and  on  the  canals  of  the  Northwest,  they  are  to 
be  banished  from  the  land  in  which  they  were  born  and  which 
they  have  aided  to  save.  Banish,  gentlemen,  from  your  minds 
that  humiliating  and  unworthy  idea.  (Applause.)  Make  up  your 
minds  that  if  they  are  to  be  soldiers,  they  are  to  be  freemen,  with 
the  rights  of  free  laborers,  protected  by  the  laws,  recognized  by 
the  United  States  in  their  position,  guaranteed  the  remedies  of  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  and  armed  and  drilled  to  make  their 
rights  effectual.  (Great  applause.)  And  how  shall  that  be  done  ? 
On  the  theory  of  our  "conservative"  fellow-citizens?  They  sav 
that,  true,  the  South  is  in  rebellion,  but  the  State  governments 
remain ;  their  governments  are  in  existence ;  they  have  the  right, 
the  moment  ihey  lay  down  their  arms,  to  be  recognized  by  the 
United  States  as  the  only  persons  entitled  to  speak  in  behalf  of 
the  Southern  States ;  that  the  men  now  in  authority  are  the  gov 
ernors,  the  legislators,  the  judges,  the  magistrates,  the  sheriffs  of 
the  rebel  States ;  and  that  what  the  President  should  do  is  merely 
to  offer  an  amnesty  to  screen  individual  offenders,  and  open  his 
arms  to  receive  those  who  have  just  now  had  the  sword  pointed 
at  our  bosoms,  not  merely  as  citizens  obedient  to  the  law,  but  as 
the  representatives  and  constitutional  governors  of  the  loyal  peo 
ple  of  the  rebel  States.  That  is  the  Democratic  theory  of  the  res 
toration  of  State  government  in  the  rebellious  States.  Where 
does  that  lead  you  ?  Suppose  it  to  be  accomplished ;  that  is  what 
they  mean  by  "  the  Union  as  it  was,"  with  the  old  coalition  of  the 
Southern  secessionist  and  the  Northern  Democrat  to  govern  the 
country  and  divide  the  spoils.  "  The  Union  as  it  was"  is  their 
watch-cry.  Do  they  mean  that  they  will  restore  Western  Vir 
ginia  to  Eastern  Virginia,  bound  hand  and  foot?  Do  they  mean 
that  they  will  recognize  the  fugitive  Harris  as  Governor  of  Ten 
nessee,  and  his  scattered  legislators  as  her  Legislature  ?  Do  they 
mean  that  they  will  recognize  the  men  who  assume  to  represent 
Kentucky  in  the  Southern  Confederacy  as  the  proper  representa 
tives  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  ?  Do  they  mean  that  they  will 
bring  back  the  fugitive  Governor  of  Missouri?  That  would  be 
"the  Union  as  it  was."  That  would  be  to  recognize  as  the  par- 


318  NO  PEACE  BEFOKE  VICTORY. 

ties  entitled  to  govern  the  rebel  States  the  rebels  who  now  govern 
them.  They  are  the  people  who,  the  Democrats  say,  are  now  en 
titled,  and  only  entitled,  to  be  listened  to.  I  pray  you  pause  and 
consider  gravely  this  great  subject  of  the  restoration  of  State  gov 
ernments  under  the  Constitution. 

Are  the  American  people  ready  for  such  a  restoration  as  that? 
("No,  no.")  Is  all  that  the  Union  has  accomplished  by  a  hund 
red  thousand  of  its  dead  sons,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  deso 
late  men  and  women  at  home  mourning  them,  to  recognize  an  in 
solent  pretense,  which  never  for  a  moment  has  been  a  fact  ?  If 
that  be  not  so,  then  "  the  Union  as  it  was,"  in  the  sense  of  the 
men  who  call  for  it,  is  an  impossibility.  (Applause.)  They  de 
lude  the  people  with  vain  words  when  they  speak  of  "  the  Union 
as  it  was."  Call  the  dead  to  life;  clothe  his  bones  with  his  dis 
solved  flesh ;  restore  the  soul  to  the  soulless  eyes  of  the  thousands 
that  have  fallen  martyrs  upon  the  battle-field,  and  then  you  can 
restore  the  Union  as  it  was.  (Great  applause.)  The  attempt  is 
to  begin  a  new  civil  war.  When  you  order  back  "West  Virginia, 
she  will  turn  to  you  the  points  of  her  bayonets  that  are  now  on 
your  side  —  and  justly.  When  you  recognize  the  butchers  of 
East  Tennessee  for  its  republican  government,  the  very  ghosts  of 
the  murdered  dead  will  lead  the  living  men  to  battle  against  yon. 
(Great  applause.)  When  you  talk  of  recognizing  Kentucky  and 
Missouri  as  States  of  the  rebellion,  you  will  be  overwhelmed  by 
ridicule  that  no  man  can  stand  up  against.  And  that  is  "the 
Union  as  it  was,"  in  the  words  of  the  Democratic  orators.  Why 
will  they  perpetually  come  before  the  people  with  a  lie  in  their 
mouth  and  delusion  in  their  right  hand? 

"  The  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  the  Union  as  it  was !"  I  am  for 
the  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  that  has  altered  the  Union  from  what 
it  was,  and  it  will  stay  altered  until  eternity.  (Great  applause.) 
If  the  "conservative"  gentlemen  attain  to  power,  it  will  stay  alter 
ed  in  fragments  of  shame  to  us  and  our  posterity.  If  those  who 
are  now  in  power,  and  their  successors,  continue  to  retain  the  man 
agement  of  the  government  on  its  present  principles,  it  will  con 
tinue  as  it  is,  excepting  so  far  as  it  is  bettered,  according  to  the 
Constitution  as  it  is.  (Applause.)  And  when  I  speak  of  the  Con 
stitution  as  it  is,  I  mean  as  at  came  from  the  hands  of  George 
Washington,  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  James  Madison,  not 
the  wretched,  crippled  humpback  that  has  been  presented  before 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  319 

our  eyes,  the  result  of  a  cross  between  the  Northern  and  the  South 
ern  Democrat,  an  ill-begotten  and  shapeless  monster  that  they  have 
contrived  for'their  purposes.  Born  without  arms  to  use  or  legs 
to  move  with,  and  with  a  head  that  could  only  contrive  mischief, 
and  for  every  thing  else  was  impotent ;  but  that  Constitution,  in 
the  full  vigor  of  its  humanity,  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  George 
Washington,  adequate  for  every  contingency  of  national  life, 
speaking  so  plainly  that  those  who  run  may  read,  and  only  the 
perversely  blind  can  misinterpret.  (Great  applause.)  Ay,  the  Con 
stitution  as  it  is,  which  says  that  Congress  may  call  forth  the  mili 
tia  and  use  the  armies  of  the  United  States  to  suppress  insurrec 
tion,  and  therefore  the  war  is  constitutional  according  to  the  letter 
of  the  Constitution  as  it  is.  That  Constitution  says  that  Congress 
shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  republican  fo.rm  of 
government,  and  it  is  under  the  Constitution  as  it  is  that  the  ar 
mies  now  march  to  remove  oppression  and  restore  republican  lib 
erty.  (Great  applause.)  And  it  is  the  Constitution  as  it  is  which 
declares  that  Congress  shall  have  a  right  to  pass  all  laws  neces 
sary  and  proper  to  carry  into  execution  all  the  powers  vested  in 
it  or  any  other  department  of  the  government ;  and,  therefore, 
whatever  Congress  may  think  in  its  judgment  is  necessary  to  re 
store  and  guarantee  republican  forms  of  government  in  the  rebel 
States,  that  law,  according  to  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  Congress 
may  pass.  (Great  applause.)  I  am  for  exerting  the  power.  I  do 
not  believe,  my  friends,  that  there  is  any  arbitrary  power  vested 
any  where  in  the  government  of  the  United  States.  I  think  the 
Constitution  a  provision  made  for  the  great  necessities  of  national 
life  by  men  who  had  just  come  out  of  a  war  of  seven  years,  and 
anarchy  of  twelve  years — wise  men  who  knew  the  necessities  of 
public  life,  and  were  not  careful  to  bind  the  arms  of  the  nation 
when  its  being  is  at  stake ;  and  they  provided  that  in  the  event 
of  invasion  or  rebellion,  or  public  danger,  the  writ  of >  habeas  corpus 
might  be  suspended.  That  meant,  not  that  the  President  should 
be  vested  with  an  arbitrary  and  reckless  power  to  arrest  any  man 
at  his  will  and  pleasure,  irresponsible  to  the  people  and  answer 
able  only  to  himself,  but  that  the  exigencies  of  national  life,  in 
the  conduct  of  war,  rendered  it  impossible  to  rest  on  the  mere  ju 
dicial  process  for  enforcing  the  laws.  It  is  impossible  to  let  the 
public  safety  depend  upon  the  possibility  of  proving  by  legal  evi 
dence  a  participation  with  public  enemies ;  and,  therefore,  as  the 


320  N0  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

lesser  of  two  evils,  as  anarchy  stood  upon  the  one  side,  and  discre 
tionary  power,  under  the  guardianship  of  the  people,  temporarily 
vested  in  their  chosen  officer  by  them,  was  the  only  danger  to  be 
encountered  upon  the  other — as  they  trust  the  President  to  de 
termine  who  are  in  rebellion,  and  with  the  command  of  the  ar 
mies  for  its  suppression  upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  to  sacrifice 
the  lives  of  thousands  because  they  are  dressed  in  gray  uniform, 
and  not  as  we  are,  in  blue,  so  they  give  him  the  discretionary 
power  if  in  his  judgment  any  one,  Democrat  or  Eepublican,  is 
dangerous  to  the  public  peace  from  any  reason,  he  may  not  punish 
him,  not  try  him  by  court-martial,  not  incarcerate  him  in  the  pen 
itentiary,  but  he  may  arrest  him  to  prevent  mischief,  and  hold  him 
till  the  clanger  is  past.  (Great  applause.)  That  is  the  Constitu 
tion  as  it  is,  and  not  as  the  Democrats  construe  it ;  and  I  am  in 
favor  of  applying  its  powers  to  the  letter  and  in  the  spirit,  and  to 
the  bitter  end  of  the  war. 

I  warned  the  government  a  year  before  they  got  an  act  of  Con 
gress  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  that  undertaking  to  do 
it  without  that  authority  would  raise  a  storm  that  they  could  not 
meet.  Gentlemen,  no  man  deplores  more  than  I  do  the  accuracy 
of  my  reading  of  the  tenderness  of  the  American  people  for  the 
forms  of  law.  It  has  cost  us,  and  we  are  this  day  suffering  from 
it,  the  State  of  New  York,  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  last  year, 
the  State  of  Ohio,  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  the  State  of  Illinois. 
Now  the  power  is  upon  the  just  basis  of  law.  Kational  men  will 
yield  obedience  to  it.  None  but  traitorous  conservatives  will  con 
tinue  to  howl  against  it.  (Great  applause.)  Every  loyal  man 
knows  the  President  will  not  use  it  for  oppression. 

I  turn  to  consider  that  other  great  power  and  duty — the  guar 
antee  of  republican  governments  to  the  States.  That  touches  a 
question  which  ought  to  have  been  decided  by  the  last  Congress, 
which  our  friends  are  singularly  timid  about  meeting.  In  my 
judgment,  the  sooner  it  is  met  the  better,  and  the  sooner  the 
grounds  upon  which  we  act  are  ascertained,  the  better  for  all  par 
ties.  I  regret  that,  in  dealing  with  the  question  of  reorganizing 
the  State  governments,  eminent  gentlemen  have  used  words  which 
they,  I  think,  will  regret  hereafter.  They  speak  of  the  Southern 
men  in  arms  as  being  alien  enemies.  The  President  has  never  so 
called  them.  Congress  has  never  so  called  them.  No  law  upon 
the  statute-book  so  treats  them.  No  official  document  has  ever 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  321 

hinted  at  that  character.  To  call  them  alien  enemies  admits  that 
their  secession  was  effectual  to  give  them  the  right  of  independ 
ence  in  the  eye  of  the  world.  It  admits  they  are  not  traitors,  but 
enemies.  I  say  they  are  traitors  and  not  enemies  (applause) ;  citi 
zens  under  the  law,  against  which  they  are  illegally  waging  war, 
not  foreigners  waging  a  war  upon  equal  terms  with  men  who  are 
foreigners  to  them.  They  war  with  the  rope  around  their  necks. 
(Applause.)  Their  victory  can  be  decorated  by  no  laurel  in  his 
tory.  Where  she  speaks  of  their  deeds  of  valor,  it  will  always  be 
with  a  melancholy  tear  over  the  cause  in  which  it  was  exhibited. 
It  will  always  be  accompanied  with  the  bar  sinister,  to  mark  that 
the  cause  was  illegitimate,  the  purpose  iniquitous,  the  object  un 
just.  You  sanctify  them  when  you  call  them  alien  enemies. 
Keep  them  to  their  real  character — traitorous  enemies  of  their 
country.  (Applause.)  And  when  the  right  of  conquest  is  re 
ferred  to,  as  it  has  been  by  a  very  distinguished  and  a  very  able 
gentleman,  to  find  out  the  methods  of  dealing  with  the  reorgani 
zation  of  the  State  governments,  I  desire  to  say  that  any  man  or 
any  party  that  claims  over  the  Southern  States,  after  the  insurrec 
tion  has  been  repressed — that  is  the  legal  language,  gentlemen,  of 
the  statutes  of  the  United  States — any  party  that  after  the  insur 
rection  -shall  have  been  repressed  shall  attempt  to  consider  them 
a  conquered  people,  that  party  will  destroy  itself,  or,  if  it  be  suc 
cessful,  it  will  destroy  republican  liberty.  It  is  a  doctrine  un 
known  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  it  is  beyond  the 
purview  of  American  principles  of  government;  it  recognizes 
what  no  responsible  statesman  has  heretofore  recognized  or  ought 
ever  to  recognize,  the  possession  of  absolute,  arbitrary,  despotic 
power  in  the  government  over  a  portion  of  the  States  as  the  result 
of  its  military  operations  to  suppress  an  insurrection.  It  places 
the  government  above  the  law  to  enforce  the  law !  The  law 
speaks  differently;  the  Constitution  speaks  differently.  Under 
them  both  we  have  to  act.  We  owe  it  to  the  wisdom  of  our  fore 
fathers  to  recognize  that  they  have  left  our  hands  as  free  to  deal 
with  rebellion  as  wisdom  will  sanction,  and  every  power  in  our 
hands  which  tends  to  accomplish  the  object.  We  must  deal  with 
it  in  their  mode.  The  States  are,  by  rebellion,  extinguished  and 
become  Territories !  says  a  very  distinguished  and  eloquent  states 
man.  Then  how  can  it  be  that  the  Constitution  requires  Congress 
to  guarantee  to  every  State  a  republican  form  of  government,  if 

X 


322  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

V 

the  destruction  of  a  republican  form  of  government  in  the  State 
converts  it  into  the  condition  of  a  Territory,  and  subjects  it  to  the 
arbitrary  power  of  Congress  ?  They  did  not  so  deem  it.  They 
regarded  the  States  as  continuing,  perpetual  elements  of  our 
Union,  and  their  citizens  always  beneath  the  Constitution.  But 
they  draw  the  broad  and  marked  discrimination  between  the  in 
dividual  rights  of  the  citizen,  the  existence  of  the  State  as  a  body 
politic,  and  its  capacity  by  reason  of  its  want  of  organization  to 
exert  its  political  powers.  If  a  man  in  South  Carolina  comes  to 
Philadelphia,  no  lawyer  can  plead  "  alien  enemy"  to  his  suit.  If 
I  go  to  South  Carolina,  I  have  all  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of  South 
Carolina.  The  officers  of  the  United  States,  their  postmasters, 
their  collectors,  their  marshals,  are  still  provided  for  by  law,  and 
some  exist ;  the  statutes  are  still  upon  the  statute-books ;  it  is  still 
illegal  to  import  any  thing  within  those  limits  without  paying  the 
duties;  the  courts  exist  wherever  the  President  names  judges. 
They  are  in  every  particular  still  under  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  described  on  their  statute-books,  nowhere  except  as  States 
of  this  Union.  When  men  are  to  be  tried  for  treason,  they  can 
only  be  tried  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  according  to  the- 
laws  of  the  United  States,  by  juries  summoned  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  under  the  Constitution  of  the-  United 
States.  But  these  clauses  do  not  fetter  the  hands  of  the  Govern 
ment,  as  stupid  Conservatives  say  when  they  quote  the  Constitu 
tion  to  prohibit  the  marching  of  an  army  to  remove  opposition 
to  the  execution  of  the  laws.  When  the  opposition  is  dispersed, 
then  the  reign  of  the  courts  is  restored  and  the  day  of  punishment 
may  come.  But  with  reference  to  their  political  franchises,  the 
wisdom  of  our  forefathers  has  placed  them  a  step  farther  off.  Our 
"Conservative"  friends  are  altogether  too  eager  to  have  their 
votes  for  the  next  Presidential  contest  when  they  propose  to  re 
gard  the  existing  authorities  in  the  rebel  States  as  entitled  to  be 
recognized  as  the  authorities  of  the  States  within  the  Union. 
That,  doubtless,  would  be  very  convenient  if  they  could  get  the 
votes  of  half  a  dozen  of  the  Southern  States,  and  make  up  their 
deficiency  of  votes  in  the  North  in  that  way,  and  thereby  elect 
their  "Conservative"  President,  Fortunately,  the  law  is  not  so 
unwise.  There  can  be  no  electors  of  President  from  any  State, 
unless  there  be  a  government  organized  in  it  recognized  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  whose  officers  have  sworn  obe- 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  323 

dience  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  (Applause.)  Till 
that,  there  can  be  no  authority  any  where  exerted.  Do  those  men 
now  in  authority  in  the  Southern  States  constitute  the  State  gov 
ernments  under  the  Constitution  that  they  repudiate,  that  they  say 
is  annulled,  that  they  have  taken  up  arms  to  destroy  ?  On  the 
contrary,  the  very  first  act  in  secession  was  not  to  carry  their  ter 
ritory  from  beneath  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  but  to  tear 
down  their  own  State  governments  and  institute  others.  Those 
that  they  tore  down  were  republican  governments  in  the  sense  of 
the  Constitution.  Those  that  they  have  established  are  a  mob  in 
the  form  of  the  government,  and  the  rebellion  organized  to  exe 
cute  its  purpose,  entitled  to  recognition  by  nobody.  To  partici 
pate  in  their  government  is,  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  the 
crime  of  high  treason.  Their  governor,  by  merely  accepting  his 
position,  renders  himself  liable  to  trial,  conviction,  and  hanging. 
Every  officer  of  theirs  is  aiding  to  promote  the  war.  They  are  a 
band  of  traitors,  usurping  rights  over  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
The  armies  of  the  United  States  move  to  strike  that  power  from 
their  hands,  and  restore  it  to  loyal  men ;  and  in  doing  that,  the 
only  arbiter  of  what  government  shall  be  recognized,  the  only 
arbiter  of  who  shall  be  treated  as  a  governor,  or  a  legislator, 
or  a  judge  of  a  rebel  State,  is  the  United  States  in  Congress  as 
sembled.  (Applause.)  Till  they  shall  recognize  another  govern 
ment,  there  is  no  government.  In  the  absence  of  a  State  govern 
ment,  there  must  be  either  anarchy,  or  a  legislative  and  executive 
power  somewhere.  Those  that  have  abdicated  can  no  longer  be 
the  government  of  the  State.  The  right  and  the  duty  to  guaran 
tee  a  republican  government  is  vested  in  Congress.  Congress  is 
therefore  charged  to  take  every  measure  that  is  necessary  to  re 
store  republican  government.  Pending  the  interregnum,  Congress 
is  the  only  legislative  power  for  the  State,  the  President  is  the 
only  executive  power  for  the  State.  They  can,  under  a  provision 
which  I  have  already  quoted,  pass  any  law  in  their  judgment  nec 
essary  to  consolidate  the  republican  government  which  they  are 
about  to  establish,  and  they  have  the  sole  and  absolute  discretion 
of  determining  who  shall  and  who  shall  not  be  recognized  as  the 
government  of  the  State.  Nay,  gentlemen,  so  far  is  this  from  be 
ing  mere  theory  or'a  fanciful  disquisition,  it  is  now  the  policy  on 
which  the  administration  has  acted.  John  Letcher  was  playing 
governor  at  Kichmond  when  the  President  of  the  United  States 


324:  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

recognized  Pierpont  as  the  Governor  of  Western  Virginia,  and  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  and  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  ad 
mitted  their  representatives  to  the  floors  of  Congress.  When  men 
speak  of  any  other  mode  of  adjustment,  they  fly  in  the  face  of  the 
actual  conduct  of  the  government.  It  is  not  my  theory ;  it  is  the 
policy  of  the  administration.  They  have  already  solved  the  prob 
lem  ;  they  have  already  pointed  out  their  course  of  action ;  they 
have  already  declared  their  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  to 
be  that  which  I  have  put  upon  it,  that  they  are  acting  as  the 
guarantors  of  republican  government  in  States  where  Eepublican 
government  has  ceased  to  exist,  and  that  they  alone  are  at  liberty 
to  re-establish  it,  that  they  alone  are  entitled  to  determine  who 
are  the  legitimate  possessors  of  power,  and  that  they  have  done  in 
the  case  of  Western  Virginia.  Had  John  Letcher  been  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  and  merely  an  erring  mortal,  going  a  little  too 
far  in  the  tracks  of  treason,  as  our  "Conservative"  opponents 
would  lead  you  to  suppose,  then  there  could  be  no  recognition  of 
any  other  State  government  anywhere  within  the  borders  of  Vir 
ginia.  The  President  and  Congress  did  not  so  treat  him.  They 
treated  him  as  the  head  of  the  Eichmond  mob ;  they  treated  him 
as  the  leader  of  the  Virginia  rebels ;  they  treated  him  as  a  traitor 
who  had  pulled  down  his  own  State  government,  and  then  under 
took  to  usurp  illegal  authority  over  his  fellow-citizens.  It  is  in 
that  light,  and  that  alone,  that  he  stands  before  the  government 
of  the  United  States. 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  us  see  how  this  will  work  out,  and  whether 
this  is  not  the  safer  law  and  the  only  one  possible  path  for  us  who 
mean  to  accomplish  something  practical,  permanent,  and  blessed 
by  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  to  pursue.  The  President  has 
proclaimed  the  abolition  of  slavery.  (Applause.)  If  it  rests  on 
that  proclamation,  let  us  trace  it  out  a  little.  Suppose  the  war  to 
be  ended,  and  our  "  Conservative"  friends  to  be  in  power,  and 
Mr.  John  Letcher  to  be  recognized  as  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
and  Mr.  Bonham  as  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  and  so  on 
through  the  rebellious  States;  the  existing  Legislatures  remain; 
the  existing  distribution  of  political  power  remains ;  the  existing 
Southern  courts  remain ;  the  existing  organization  of  the  South 
ern  militia  remains;  the  existing  debts,  the  war  debts  that  they 
have  incurred  to  fight  us,  remain.  They  will  be  at  liberty  to  as 
sume,  as  most  of  them  I  believe  have  already  done,  the  Confeder- 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  325 

ate  debt  of  the  rebel  States.  That,  therefore,  becomes  a  perma 
nent  burden  upon  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  common  with 
our  State  debts  and  with  our  national  debt.  Those  men  thus  re 
instated  in  power  by  our  act  are  the  only  persons  that  can  have  a 
word  to  say  on  the  subject  of  whether  the  proclamation  is  or  is 
not  valid  as  law.  What  do  you  suppose  the  judges  of  South 
Carolina  would  say  on  that  point  if  a  negro  were  to  claim  his 
freedom  under  it  ?  It  makes  it  at  once  a  dead  letter.  It  is  alto 
gether  frivolous ;  I  say  farther,  gentlemen,  it  is  something  very 
much  like  a  cowardly  evasion  when  men  who  wish  to  avoid  that 
inevitable  consequence  of  that  form  of  reconstructing  the  govern 
ments  in  the  rebel  States  say,  "  If  the  proclamation  is  valid,  it 
will  be  held  valid  by  the  courts ;  and  if  it  is  void,  it  can  not  be 
made  valid."  Neither  proposition  is  of  the  courts  of  the  rebel 
States  in  the  hands  of  the  true.  If  it  were  as  valid  as  any  law 
upon  the  statute-book  of  the  United  States,  if  it  remain  a  mere 
proclamation  and  be  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  rebel  judges,  it 
will  be  annulled  and  disregarded,  for  they  are  the  only  judges  of 
what  is  the  law  of  their  own  State,  and  therefore  when  you  shall 
have  turned  the  negro  free,  if  he  should  attempt  to  assert  his 
freedom,  their  process  will  hang  him ;  their  process  will  shoot 
him ;  their  process  will  hunt  him  down  by  the  bloodhound ;  their 
process  will  drag  him  backward  into  slavery.  If  he  attempt  to 
rebel  and  show  himself  too  strong,  they  will  call  on  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  send  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to 
reduce  him  to  slavery  under  the  laws  of  the  States ;  and  a  "  Con 
servative  President  would  only  be  too  happy  to  have  the  oppor 
tunity  of  manifesting  in  that  manner  that  he  was  opposed  to 
'  negro  equality?  " 

Neither  is  the  other  hypothesis  true  that  if  it  be  invalid  it  can 
not  be  helped.  As  it  now  stands,  in  my  judgment  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  will  not  recognize  it  as  law;  the 
United  States  courts  can  not  enforce  it.  But  it  can  be  helped  by 
an  act  of  Congress  under  its  power  to  legislate  for  the  States  pend 
ing  the  execution  of  the  guarantee ;  it  can  be  helped  by  an  act 
of  Congress  in  the  execution  of  its  guarantee  of  republican  govern 
ment  if  it  considers  that  the  continuance  of  these  men  in  slavery, 
and  the  power  of  the  masters  over  them,  is  incompatible  with  a 
permanent  consolidation  of  republican  institutions  in  the  States. 
(Applause.)  That  is  a  political,  and  not  a  j  udicial  question.  That 


326  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

will  be  decided  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  courts  of  the  United  States 
will  follow  the  judgment  of  Congress  and  the  President.  Make  it 
an  act  of  Congress,  and  then  you  have  made  it  a  law.  Place  on  the 
statute-book  j  udicial  process,  and  then  you  have  given  the  freed- 
men  the  courts  of  the  United  States  to  protect  them  against  the  local 
tyranny.  Make  it  a  law  of  the  United  States,  and  then  the  armies 
'of  the  United  States  stand,  not  to  return  them  to  their  masters, 
but  to  repel  their  masters  from  them  under  the  law.  (Applause.) 
Let  the  Conservative  howl;  this  is  the  Constitution  as  it  is; 
this  is  the  execution  of  the  guarantee  that  George  Washington 
placed  in  the  Constitution;  this  is  the  condition  to  which  the 
States  by  rebellion  have  brought  themselves  within  the  legiti 
mate,  express  legislative  power  of  Congress,  to  deal  with  them 
and  their  property,  and  the  organization  of  their  society,  on  such 
principles  as  Congress  shall  judge  to  be  not  incompatible  with  the 
permanence  of  republican  government.  It  is  frivolous  to  say  that 
we  can  arm  a  million  of  men  to  prostrate  half  a  million  in  the 
dust,  taking  away  precious  life,  to  restore  republican  government, 
but  we  can  not  restore  freedom  to  slaves  in  the  same  cause.  Life 
is  protected  against  illegal  aggression  in  the  Constitution  as  well  as 
property,  even  of  the  most  unquestionable  character.  Life  is  not 
less  sacred  than  slavery.  Can  we  destroy  life  to  repel  from  pow 
er  those  who  have  usurped  a  power  to  create  unrepublican  forms 
of  government  in  the  rebel  States  ?  and  are  we  to  be  told,  if  Con 
gress  shall  be  of  the  opinion  that  the  continuance  of  these  men  in 
slavery  is  an  insuperable  barrier  to  the  restoration  of  republican 
government,  if  they  shall  be  of  opinion  that  the  resources  of  the 
government  are  not  enough  to  put  down  the  rebellion  without 
their  aid,  if  they  are  convinced  that  they  can  not  get  their  aid 
without  promising  and  securing  to  them  freedom,  and  that  they 
can  never  be  free  unless  their  wives  and  their  children,  their  old 
and  their  young,  are  free  with  them — are  we  to  be  told  that  the 
power  of  Congress  is  limited  with  reference  to  that  species  of 
property — that  it  must  stand  a  perpetual  obstacle  to  free  govern 
ment  ?  Why,  fellow-citizens,  it  is  to  construe  the  Constitution  in 
the  interest  of  the  rebellious  faction  that  by  coalition  with  North 
ern  Democrats  has  governed  the  country  to  its  ruin  for  thirty 
years,  to  adopt  it.  (Applause.)  They  have  always  been  the  strict 
constructionists.  George  Washington  was  the  rational  construe- 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  327 

tionist.  They  have  been  always  in  favor  of  tying  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  hand  and  foot,  because  they  saw  that  it 
had  strong  feet  to  trample  down  rebellion,  and  long  arms  to  reach 
it.  (Applause.)  Their  rebellion  has,  I  think,  removed  the  cob 
webs  from  before  the  peoples'  eyes.  They  now  begin  to  see  the 
policy  that  lay  at  the'  bottom  of  the  strict  construction  of  the 
Democratic  school.  They  begin  to  understand  that  they  were 
barriers  thrown  up  to  protect  the  institution  of  slavery.  They 
begin  to  understand  that  they  were  the  deliberately  prepared  bul 
warks  for  a  premeditated  rebellion.  They  now  begin  to  see  that 
James  Buchanan  was  only  repeating  the  lesson  he  had  heard  from 
Jefferson  Davis  when  he  said  there  was  no  power  to  invade  a 
State,  no  power  to  make  war  against  a  State,  no  power  to  coerce 
a  State ;  the  States  must  be  left  to  their  good  pleasure,  to  do  ill 
if  they  so  pleased.  That  was  not  the  Constitution  that  George 
Washington  framed,  nor  the  one  that  the  early  men  of  the  repub 
lic  acted  upon,  nor  is  it  the  one  that  we  now,  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  national  necessity,  will  act  upon.  "We  will  restore  it  to  its 
power,  and  act  upon  that.  Oh,  but  they  say,  if  you  refuse  to  rec 
ognize  the  existing  State  governments,  they  will  refuse  to  l&y 
down  their  arms.  Nobody  but  a  fool  expects  them  to  lay  clown 
their  arms  till  they  are  knocked  from  their  hands.  (Great  ap 
plause.)  They  are  out  of  Eastern  Tennessee  now.  How  did  they 
get  out  ?  They  are  out  of  Western  Virginia.  How  came  they 
out?  They  are  out  of  one  third  of  the  residue  of  Virginia.  How 
came  they  out?  If  the  re-enforcements  pour  on  rapidly  enough, 
they  will  soon  be  out  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  as  well  as  Missis 
sippi.  (Applause.)  Where  would  a  "  Conservative"  President  go 
to  find  the  Governor  of  Mississippi  or  Louisiana  now  ?  When  we 
are  done  with  the  rebellion,  there  will  be  no  governments,  even  in 
form,  to  recognize,  if  the  President  do  his  duty.  (Applause.)  The 
traitors  will  be  hunted  from  their  hiding-places.  If  the  President 
executes  his  duty,  the  first  men  to  be  sought  out  and  arrested  are 
those  who  have  held  civil  office  in  the  rebellious  States.  He  will 
seize  on  the  governor  first,  and  the  constable  last,  in  the  order  of 
their  precedence,  and,  when  he  shall  send  them  to  jail,  he  will  tell 
them  not  to  stand  upon  the  order  of  their  going,  but  to  go  at  once, 
and  go  quickly  (laughter  and  applause),  and  then  the  Conserva 
tives  will  be  in  great  trouble,  for  there  will  be  no  government, 
rebel  or  loyal.  What  are  we  to  do  then?  The  execution  of  the 


328  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

military  powers  of  the  President  brings  the  States  back  to  where 
I  say  they  are  by  law — people  forming  a  State  without  a  political 
organization,  called  State  government.  That  they  can  only  re 
ceive  under  the  auspices  of  Congress,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
forms  and  by  the  laws  that  it,  and  it  alone,  shall  see  fit  to  pre 
scribe.  (Applause.)  When  proper  provision  shall  have  been 
made  for  these  things,  then  there  will  be  something  else  necessary, 
for  to  all  liberties  a  guarantee  is  necessary.  Our  great  forefathers 
had  none  of  our  foolish,  sentimental  belief  in  the  impeccability  of 
the  people — not  a  bit  of  it.  They  thought  that,  as  a  general  thing, 
and  in  the  long  run,  the  great  mass  and  body  of  the  people  were 
wise,  and  liberal,  and  honest,  and  would  conduct  their  affairs  well ; 
but  they  knew  that  bad  men  could  get  into  power;  that  great 
masses  of  men  could  be  inflamed  by  passion ;  that  injustice  might 
be  perpetrated  by  mobs  as  well  as  by  a  tyrant ;  that  a  republican 
government  could  be  overthrown  and  a  despotic  government 
erected ;  that  a  minority,  with  superior  arms  or  superior  intelli 
gence,  could  trample  down  a  majority  disarmed  and  out  of  pos 
session  of  the  government.  They  foresaw,  as  the  pages  of  the 
Federalist  will  prove  to  any  man  who  has  read  it,  when  they 
framed  the  Constitution,  exactly  what  we  now  see  with  our  eyes 
in  these  days  of  blood  and  carnage,  that  a  great  interest  acting  to 
gether  as  a  unit,  covering  a  great  region  of  country,  antagonistic 
to  the  other  interests  of  the  country,  might  combine,  and  by  for 
eign  aid,  and  the  possession  of  the  local  governments,  create  a  great 
rebellion,  overthrow  the  republican  government,  and  establish 
something  that  was  not  republican ;  and  therefore  they  created 
the  power  to  suppress  insurrection,  and  imposed  the  duty  on  Con 
gress  to  guarantee  republican  governments.  We,  unlike  those 
who  have  to  deal  with  most  great  rebellions,  without  hurting  any 
one  great  permanent  legitimate  interest  of  society,  can  strike  from 
under  the  faction  its  only  foundation.  Heretofore  civil  strifes 
have  arisen  between  the  poor  and  the  rich ;  those  who  have,  and 
those  who  have  not,  property ;  between  those  who  are  in  power 
and  those  who  are  out  of  power,  to  acquire  what  they  have  not. 
Those  are  revolutions  difficult  to  be  dealt  with.  It  is  difficult  to 
get  at  the  cause  and  to  remove  it.  You  can  not  destroy  property. 
It  is  difficult  to  change  the  form  of  a  political  organization.  Here 
the  foundation  is  a  social  institution — the  right  by  law,  contrary 
to  the  law  of  nature,  for  one  man  to  hold  another  in  servitude. 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  329 

You  cut  up  the  roots  of  the  rebellion  by  striking  the  shackles 
from  the  slave.  (Prolonged  applause.)  How  shall  it  be  done? 
Congress  passed  two  laws  in  1862  authorizing  the  President  to 
use  as  many  persons  of  African  descent  as  he  might  see  fit,  to  aid 
him,  organized  in  such  manner  as  he  might  think  best,  to  suppress 
the  rebellion.  The  President  now,  late  in  the  day — in  my  judg 
ment  much  later  than  it  ought  to  have  been — has  commenced  in 
earnest  the  organization  of  the  negro  regiments  from  the  slave  ele 
ment  of  the  country.  The  "  Conservatives,"  North  and  South, 
cry  aloud  against  it.  No  man  who  does  not  mean  to  aid  the 
rebellion  will  lay  a  straw  across  the  track  of  that  march.  (Ap 
plause.)  We  are  informed  "slaves  can  not  be  soldiers  !"  There 
is  mighty  little  of  the  slave  left  in  the  man  who  has  a  musket 
upon  his  shoulder.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  "  Slaves  can  not 
be  soldiers."  They  who  have  taken  leave  of  absence  are  likely 
to  keep  it.  "  Slaves  can  not  be  soldiers."  Then  make  them  free 
by  law  of  Congress,  and  let  us  stop  the  argument.  (Applause.) 
"  You  can  not  take  private  property  for  public  use  without  com 
pensation."  No ;  but  every  man  in  the  United  States  owes  mil 
itary  service  to  the  United  States  paramount  to  all  laws  of  the 
States ;  and  if  the  negro  owes  the  service,  the  master  has  no  right 
to  claim  pay  for  it.  (Applause.)  The  burden  passes  with  the  prop 
erty.  The  master  has  been  voting  upon  the  negro's  personality 
for  eighty  years.  We  will  let  the  negro  fight  a  little  now  upon 
his  personality.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But  it  is  said,  white 
soldiers  will  not  fight  in  the  same  ranks  with  the  negroes.  Where 
have  the  soldiers  said  they  did  not  want  their  aid  ?  Where  have 
they  turned  their  backs  upon  an  enemy  because  a  negro  stood 
facing  the  same  enemy?  What  officers  have  thrown  up  their 
commissions  because  they  are  humbled  by  being  in  the  same 
ranks?  Are  they  rather  not  rational  enough  to  say  that  the  mus 
ket  upon  the  shoulder  of  the  negro  elevates  him  to  the  dignity  of 
man  ?  The  Federalist,  in  its  wisdom,  foresaw  this  day  in  some 
thing  of  its  brightness  when  it  said  that  commotions  might  make 
a  race  of  unhappy  beings  emerge  to  the  level  of  manhood.  (Ap 
plause.)  But  we  are  told,  "  You  will  disorganize  your  armies." 
Was  Rosecrans's  army  disorganized  four  days  ago  because  ne 
groes  had  been  introduced  into  the  army?  "  The  Union  men  of 
the  loyal  slave  States  will  be  disgusted,  and  they  will  rebel." 
Where  ?  Western  Virginia  has  abolished  slavery  since  this  sys- 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

tern  lias  been  initiated  and  proclaimed.  (Applause.)  Missouri 
has  passed  her  act  of  emancipation,  made  gradual  by  her  Copper 
heads,  because  her  loyal  men  would  otherwise  have  made  it  per 
emptory  and  immediate.  In  Maryland,  that  surrounds  your  cap 
ital,  and  more  than  once  has  felt  the  tramp  of  the  invader — such 
is  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  her  people,  that  her  governor  has 
been '  compelled  to  hasten  up  his  lagging  opinions  and  proclaim 
himself  in  favor  of  emancipation — and  a  Convention  next  year  to 
effect  it ;  and  the  only  question  is  whether  the  enlistment  of  the 
slaves  will  leave  any  to  emancipate.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 
"Who  has  rebelled  ?  Who  that  was  loyal  to  the  government  has 
become  disloyal  ?  Somewhere,  where  the  negro  fever  has  been 
lurking  under  the  skin,  of  course  it  has  broken  out ;  but  the  fever 
was  there  before;  it  only  required  a  hot  day  to  bring  it  out. 
(Laughter.)  No  sound  loyal  man  has  a  symptom  of  that  in  him. 
"But  there  will  be  servile  insurrections,  outrages  upon  women, 
massacres  of  masters,  burning  down  of  houses,  destruction  of  great 
regions  of  country,"  every  thing  that  the  Apocalypse  describes 
before  the  last  day.  That  mass  of  freedmen  has  done  no  such 
iniquity  any  where.  They  have  submitted  with  more  than  angel 
ic  patience  to  the  torments  of  their  masters,  till  the  United  States 
has  given  them  an  opportunity  of  freedom ;  and  then,  murdering 
no  one,  outraging  no  one,  insulting  no  one,  they  have  marched 
quietly  through  the  streets  of  Baltimore  to  the  negro  camp,  and 
undertaken  the  obligations  of  the  military  oath.  (Applause.) 
The  guarantee  that  you  want  is,  enough  of  them — that  is  all. 
Organize  one  hundred  thousand,  or  two  hundred  thousand,  or 
three  hundred  thousand,  and  plant  them  as  a  beacon-light  and  a 
tower  of  strength  in  the  middle  of  the  Southern  country,  and  that, 
with  an  act  of  Congress,  makes  freedoms  not  only  law,  but  fact ; 
and  till  that  is  done,  the  President's  proclamation  is  not  worth  the 
paper  on  which  it  is  written.  ("  That's  so,"  and  cheers.)  Your 
declaration  that  you  are  going  to  set  the  slaves  free  is  a  mere  de 
lusion  ;  their  rushing  to  join  the  army  is  merely  preparing  their 
necks  for  the  halter ;  the  recognition  of  the  existing  rebel  authori 
ties  is  merely  handing  them  over  to  the  stake  and  the  torture. 
Ilumanity,  Christianity,  the  highest  principles,  the  most  ordinary 
honor,  combine  in  crying  shame  on  thus  complicating  the  fate  of 
that  innocent  people  with  yours,  if  you  do  not  mean  to  make  their 
fate  also  yours.  (Applause.)  Let  them  stay  at  home,  doomed  to 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  331 

the  inexorable  lash  and  eternal  labor,  rather  than  drag  them  out 
to  incur  the  deadly  hate  and  hostility  of  their  masters,  and  then 
return  them  defenseless  to  their  tender  mercies.  There  may  be 
execrable  humiliations  yet  connected  with  the  adjustment  of  this 
great  revolution,  but  the  pen  of  the  historian  will  steep  itself  in 
gall  of  equal  bitterness  for  no  other  act  as  for  calling  negroes  into 
the  field,  and  abandoning  them  afterward  to  slavery.  That,  fel 
low-citizens,  is  one  of  those  steps  which,  once  taken,  can  never  be 
recalled.  "The  Union  as  it  was"  can  never  be  after  that  step. 
But  when  the  negroes  shall  be  organized,  armed,  disciplined,  dec 
orated  with  the  uniform  of  the  United  States,  and  taught  the  ma 
noeuvres  of  the  field,  an  act  of  Congress  which  proclaims  them  and 
their  like  free  will  be  an  act  that  will  be  respected.  Then  the 
United  States  will  have  acquired  four  millions  of  people  in  the 
rebel  States  whose  liberty  depends  upon  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Union,  and  for  the  first  time  you  will  have  a  guarantee  such  as 
you  never  had  before.  You  will  have  converted  the  element  of 
your  weakness  into  the  element  of  your  strength.  You  will  have 
wrested  the  sword  from  your  antagonist,  and  will  wield  it  over  his 
defenseless  head.  *  Your  friends  are  camped  eternally  among  them, 
and  they  are  on  their  good  behavior.  If  they  attempt  to  reduce 
them  to  slavery,  the  law  calls  the  men  of  the  North  to  vindicate 
the  right  they  have  conferred,  not  to  meet  in  arms  the  men  they 
had  previously  armed  against  the  Southern  rebellion.  That  is  the 
legal  way  th^t  that  problem  will  be  accomplished.  Then,  if  we 
hear  the  wretched  cry,  coming  from  the  lowest  of  the  populace, 
chiefly  that  which  floods  us  from  abroad,  about  negro  equality  and 
the  intrusion  of  negro  labor  upon  white  labor,  mention  to  them 
one  or  two  things  which  may  even  meet  their  intellect.  In  the 
first  place,  if  any  body  is  afraid  of  negro  equality,  he  is  not  far 
from  it  already  (laughter) ;  in  the  next  place,  if  God  has  made  him 
equal,  and  only  accidental  circumstances  have  made  him  unequal, 
you  can  not  help  it ;  and  if  He  has  made  him  unequal  by  the  laws 
of  nature,  and  independnetly  of  accidental  circumstances,  then  no 
amount  of  demagoguism,  no  amount  of  abolition  enthusiasm  can 
make  one  hair  black  or  white,  or  add  an  inch  to  his  stature,  intel 
lectual  or  moral.  When  you  talk  about  expelling  him  from  the 
country,  you  talk  simple  craziness.  Expel  four  millions  of  people ! 
Where  are  the  ships  ?  Where  is  the  land  that  will  receive  them? 
Where  are  the  people  that  will  pay  the  taxes  to  remove  them? 


332  ^0  PEACE   BEFORE  VICTORY. 

Who  will  cultivate  the  deserted  regions  that  they  leave?  Who 
will  indemnify  King  Cotton  for  the  loss  of  his  subjects  ?  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  What  will  the  cotton-planter  do — represented  to 
you  as  a  gentleman  who,  like  Apollyon  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
eats  and  spouts  nothing  but  fire ;  but  you  will  find  a  little  com 
mon  sense  at  the  bottom  of  it  all.  Let  him  understand  that  the 
negro  is  free,  and  that  he  has  to  deal  with  him  as  a  free  laborer, 
or  let  cotton  go  uncultivated,  and  he  will  hasten  to  pay  him  wages, 
and  the  negro  will  be  glad  to  receive  them.  (Applause.)  But  he 
will  run  up  North,  say  this  same  class  of  people,  and  compete 
with  us  for  our  labor.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  free  negro  running 
away  from  where  he  was  free?  Who  ever  heard  of  a  negro  run 
ning  at  all,  if  he  could  help  it?  (Laughter.)  They  don't  run 
from  Maryland  to  Pennsylvania — why  from  South  Carolina  to 
Louisiana?  "But  they  are  lazy  and  idle."  Those  who  want  to 
keep  them  as  slaves  say  so ;  nobody  else.  We  in  Maryland  have 
more  experience  on  that  subject  than  any  body  else.  We  have 
about  200,000  negroes ;  one  half  of  them  are  free,  the  other  half 
are  slaves.  We  find  that  the  slaves  are  lazier  than  the  free  ne 
groes.  We  find  that  the  free  negroes  have  schools,  educate  their 
children,  lay  up  money  in  the  Savings'  Banks,  and  do  not  crowd 
the  court  of  my  friend  Judge  Bond  as  much  as  the  class  of  white 
people  from  across  the  water.  Every  body  talks  against  them 
who  wants  to  keep  them  down  below  the  level  of  the  slave.  It  is 
the  interest  of  the  people  who  own  the  slave  property  with  which 
they  come  in  competition  to  do  it ;  but  when  there  was  an  attempt 
made  a  few  years  ago  to  expel  them  from  Maryland,  the  leading 
landholders  and  negroholders  protested  against  it,  and  stopped  it 
because  it  would  destroy  the  agricultural  industry  of  the  State. 
If  we  in  Maryland  did  not  want  to  lose  one  half  of  our  agricul 
tural  population,  how  will  they  of  South  Carolina  live  if  they  lose 
it  all  ?  (Applause.)  Gentlemen,  necessity  is  a  teacher  that  we 
in  this  country  have  yet  to  learn  to  respect.  We  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  doing  what  seemed  to  us  good  in  our  own  eyes  ;  fre 
quently  it  was  very  bad.  We  have  to  learn,  and  our  Southern 
brethren  have  to  learn  more  bitterly  than  we,  that  sometimes  peo 
ple  have  to  do  what  they  can  do,  and  not  what  they  prefer  to 
do.  When  the  Southern  master  is  taught  that  the  question  is  not 
whether  he  will  have  the  negro  free  or  slave,  but  whether  he  will 
have  him  free  or  no  cotton,  he  will  take  the  negro  free.  (Ap- 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTOEY.  333 

plause.)  No  rebel  State  will  vote  to  emancipate  their  slaves. 
Do  not  be  under  any  such  delusion  for  an  instant.  They  mean 
to  hold  them  as  long  as  they  can.  ISTo  rebel  State  will  vote  to 
come  back  to  the  Union — rest  assured  of  it — as  long  as  there  is 
an  army  in  the  field ;  but  state  the  question,  Do  you  prefer,  now 
belonging  to  the  United  States,  to  govern  yourselves  or  be  gov 
erned  by  Congress  ?  and  they  will  hasten  to  reorganize  a  proper 
State  government.  So  with  reference  to  the  negro :  if  you  ask 
them  whether  they  would  rather  have  the  negro  free  or  slave, 
they  will  say  unanimously  "slave;"  but  if  you  say  "the  negro 
shall  be  free ;  will  you  pay  him  wages  as  a  workman,  or  will  you 
not  have  cultivators  for  your  fields,"  they  will  say,  "  "We  will  pay 
him  wages;"  and  that  is  no  speculation  either,  gentlemen.  At 
this  moment  large  plantations  in  Louisiana  are  cultivated  under 
bargains  made  between  the  master  and  the  slave  for  a  reasonable 
compensation.  To  such  an  extent  has  the  depletion  of  the  slave 
population  of  the  western  shore  of  Maryland  gone,  that  some  of 
the  most  violent  secessionists  have  gone  to  their  slaves  and  of 
fered  them  higher  wages  than  heretofore  they  would  have  had  to 
pay  white  men  if  they  would  stay  at  home  and  not  enlist.  (Ap 
plause.) 

Gentlemen,  the  world  moves  palpably  to  the  eye  in  this  latter 
day,  and  the  man  who  supposes  he  can  stand  still  in  the  midst  of 
the  great  moral  movement  of  this  world  might  as  well  plant  his 
feet  firmly  in  the  mud  and  say,  "The  world  may  circle  around 
the  sun,  but  I  will  not  go  with  it."  You  are  parts  of  the  current, 
and  are  borne  on  with  it  against  your  will.  Day  after  day  you 
accept  what  yesterday  you  would  have  scouted,  and  the  day  be 
fore  would  have  thought  craziness.  Men's  interests  are  some 
times  blinded  by  their  passions,  but  when  their  passions  are  chas 
tised  their  interest  resumes  the  supremacy.  Crush  the  rebellion, 
and  cotton  will  be  again  cultivated.  Crush  the  rebellion,  and  the 
question  of  labor  will  revive.  Crush  the  rebellion,  and  the  inter 
ests  of  the  planter  will  be  a  matter  for  his  consideration.  Crush 
the  rebellion,  and  he  will  make  the  best  terms  he  can  with  his 
emancipated  and  armed  fellow-countrymen  of  the  African  race. 
(Applause.)  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  this  wretched,  cross-eyed, 
and  double-faced  conservatism  (laughter)  shall  get  into  power ;  if 
the  men  who  delude  the  people,  and  lie  to  their  own  consciences 
where  they  are  not  dishonest,  shall  crown  themselves  again,  as  for 


334  NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

thirty  years  they  have  hitherto  crowned  themselves  for  evil,  with 
the  powers  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  pro 
ceed  to  act  on  their  view  of  the  Constitution,  and  recognize  the 
rebel  leaders  as  the  masters  of  their  loyal  fellow-citizens,  whom 
now  for  two  long  years  they  have  illegally  oppressed,  restore  them 
to  the  seats  of  power,  admit  into  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
their  representatives,  leave  the  conduct  of  the  local  elections  un 
der  their  dictation,  and  allow  their  armies  to  stand  guard  over  the 
ballot-box,  and  their  laws  to  regulate  who  shall  elect  and  who 
shall  be  elected,  and  their  Constitution  to  determine  how  the  bal 
ance  of  power  shall  be  distributed  between  the  white  regions  of 
the  State  and  the  slave  regions  of  the  State — then,  I  say,  although 
the  Union  may  be  restored  in  that  way,  it  will  be  at  the  loss  of 
all  the  fruits  of  the  war ;  there  will  be  no  permanent  peace ;  it 
will  be  a  treacherous  and  shifting  sand  on  which  no  permanent 
structure  can  be  laid,  over  which  no  great  march  for  improvement 
can  pursue  its  unobstructed  way.  We  merely  restore  to  power 
those  that  have  rebelled,  to  subjugate  the  North  by  the  old  coali 
tion  to  abide  their  time  till  undying  hate,  still  fostered  and  kept 
alive  by  the  perpetuation  of  political  power,  shall  awake  amid 
some  great  national  collision  from  abroad ;  to  leave  our  ranks  in 
the  day  of  battle,  to  lift  the  banner  of  rebellion  in  the  midst  of 
national  disaster,  with  combined  armies  tear  in  pieces  the  republic 
that  they  are  now  vainly  struggling  to  overthrow.  I  say  that 
now,  when  our  armies  have  advanced  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
Confederacy,  let  us  press  it  home  and  rest  nowhere.  (Great  ap 
plause.)  Our  armies  now  gird  all  the  rebellion ;  the  leaders  of 
the  rebellion  begin  to  feel  the  inward  tortures  of  conscious  guilt, 
and  they  begin  to  feel  the  searching  throes  of  the  fire  that  we  are 
heaping  around  them.  Press  forward  only  a  little  more,  and  they 
will  be  consumed  in  the  conflagration  that  they  themselves  have 
created.  (Applause.)  We  have  now  possession  of  the  Mississip 
pi;  we  have  possession  of  all  west  of  it  substantially;  we  have  all 
of  Mississippi  in  our  possession ;  we  have  nearly  all  Louisiana  in 
our  possession ;  we  have  all  of  Tennessee  in  our  possession ;  we 
have  one  half  of  the  State  of  Virginia  in  our  possession ;  we  have 
one  full  half  of  all  the  population  that  rebelled  in  our  possession ; 
we  have  crippled  their  resources,  in  great  measure  disorganized 
or  paralyzed  their  armies;  we  have  still  fighting  to  do,  but  we 
have  less  of  it  to  do  than  we  had  a  year  ago ;  and  now,  with  one 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  335 

combined  and  energetic  effort,  if  with  our  feet  we  can  stamp  down 
the  "  conservative"  revolutionary  reaction  at  home,  and  launch  as 
a  bolt  of  fire  upon  the  enemy  our  unbroken  ranks,  a  year  more 
and  possibly  we  shall  begin  to  see  the  end  of  the  war.  (Ap 
plause.)  But,  gentlemen,  rest  assured  that  they  who  are  ready 
to  make  peace  first  will  not  dictate  the  terms  of  it ;  rest  assured 
that  they  who  are  determined  to  see  no  end  of  the  war,  excepting 
under  the  crown  of  victory,  will  wear  that  crown.  (Applause.) 
It  is  tenacity,  it  is  endurance,  it  is  patience,  it  is  the  resolution 
never  to  stop  fighting  until  your  enemy  yields,  that  constitute  the 
great  qualities,  of  nations  born  to  rule.  We  now  are  on  trial  be 
fore  the  nations  of  the  world.  If  the  sword  drop  from  our  wea 
ried  hands,  they  will  say,  "  Go,  ye  nation  of  shop-keepers  and 
weavers ;  work,  navigate,  be  ingenious,  build  houses,  weave  fab 
rics  ;  make  arms  for  the  rest  of  the  world,  leave  other  men  to  bear 
and  wield  them ;  you  are  not  the  legitimate  descendants  of  the 
men  who  wrested  their  independence  from  the  power  of  Great 
Britain."  Maintain  your  power  intact,  scout  down  and  stamp 
down  any  man  who  speaks  of  any  terms  of  peace  at  all.  (Great 
applause.)  Tell  him  that  this  is  no  foreign  war  to  be  terminated 
by  a  treaty ;  it  is  a  domestic  rebellion  to  be  stamped  in  the  earth, 
and  the  only  treaty  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  it 
is  and  as  we  construe  it  (great  applause) ;  the  only  privileges  of 
the  rebels  are  the  laws  of  Congress  as  we  have  passed  them  and 
will  execute  them  over  them  till  they  submit;  their  only  right  is 
to  a  legal  trial  and  mercy  afterward,  if  the  President  sees  fit. 
(Applause.)  They  are  not  alien  enemies,  they  are  traitors  whose 
lives  are  forfeited.  "When  we  deal  with  them,  gentlemen,  on 
these  terms,  they  will  understand  that  they  have  begun  a  work 
which  they  know  now  is  not  easy,  they  will  then  know  is  impos 
sible  ;  they  will  find  that  they  set  out  to  avert  death  in  old  age, 
and  they  encountered  suicide  at  the  threshold ;  they  will  begin  to 
understand  what  might  there  slumbers  in  the  heart  of  the  Amer 
ican  people,  wielded  by  wisdom,  backed  by  energy  and  resolu 
tion,  and  by  that  instinct  which  is  never  wanting  to  any  people 
destined  to  greatness— the  instinct  of  power  that  leads  them 
never  to  yield  as  long  as  a  man  or  a  dollar  remain,  as  long  as 
there  is  an  acre  to  be  defended  or  an  inch  to  be  restored  to  their 
domination.  Never  allow  the  god  Terminus  to  recede  across 
the  boundary  of  any  State— let  that  be  the  watchword  of  the 


336  N0  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY. 

American  republic.  Then  it  will  be  as  great,  as  glorious,  as  be 
neficent,  as  long-lived,  yea,  more  long-lived  than  the  immortal  ex 
ample  of  republican  government,  the  Eome  of  the  ancient  world. 
On  these  terms  we  shall  stand  respected  before  the  nations  of  the 
world. 

Every  despot  in  Europe  curled  his  lips  when  the  rebellion  broke 
out  at  the  feeble,  wretched,  vacillating,  dilapidated  government 
that  undertook  to  restore  its  authority  over  this  immense  and 
magnificent  region.  When  the  men  of  the  North  and  of  the  loy 
al  slave  States  commenced  to  develop  their  power,  they  paused 
in  their  determination  to  recognize,  they  paused  in  their  more  than 
half-formed  resolution  to  intervene  and  throw  the  weight  of  their 
arms  on  the  other  side.  When  our  arms  were  at  a  low  ebb  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  Louis  Napoleon  thought  it  a  convenient  opportu 
nity  to  march  in  and  take  possession  of  Mexico— to  limit  our  ex 
pansion.  He  would  not  do  it  to-day ;  and,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  when  this  rebellion  shall  be  suppressed,  I  take  it  there  is  a 
long  account  to  settle  with  two  great  nations  of  the  European 
world.  (Long-continued  applause.)  I  never  said  a  word,  my 
friends,  to  any  body  in  this  house  on  that  subject  before,  but  I 
knew  what  I  thought,  and  I  guessed  what  every  American 
thought.  (Great  applause.)  The  sailing  of  the  Alabama  and 
the  Florida — the  organization  of  companies  to  supply  arms  to 
shoot  down  our  brethren — the  organized  attempt  to  break  through 
the  blockade  with  every  material  of  war  and  every  comfort  of  life 
for  our  enemies ;  under  the  guise  of  a  neutrality  violated  at  every 
step — the  moral  power  and  force  given  to  the  rebellion  by  the 
countenance  of  the  governments  of  France  and  England,  whose 
fear  of  the  consequences  alone  prevented  formal  intrusion  into  our 
domestic  quarrel — the  thorn  in  our  side  of  Nassau — the  prying 
eye  that  watched  our  every  movement  at  Halifax — the  long  thorn 
that  France  has  planted  in  our  side  in  Mexico — these  things  fes 
ter  and  rankle  till  the  day  of  account.  (Great  applause.)  I  used 
to  be  opposed  to  foreign  conquest,  opposed  to  the  acquisition  of 
that  territory,  opposed  to  foreign  war.  I  have  learned  something 
in  two  years.  I  take  it  that  the  sailing  of  the  Alabama  has  unset 
tled  the  Northeastern  frontier.  (Applause.)  I  take  it  that  the  in 
trusion  of  a  monarchical  power  into  Mexico  has  made  us  feel  that 
Mexico  is  a  republic,  and  our  safety  requires  its  expulsion.  (Tre 
mendous  cheering.)  I  take  it  that  we  feel  uncomfortably  bound 


NO  PEACE  BEFORE  VICTORY.  337 

in  by  the  Bahama  Islands,  and  that  hereafter  Nassau  will  not  be 
the  pirate's  nest,  to  prey  on  us.  (Great  applause.)  When  this 
giant  shall  have  recovered  the  use  of  all  his  faculties,  not  now  like 
a  man  cloven  from  head  to  foot,  and  wielding  scarce  any  of  his 
native  power,  but  restored  to  his  whole  manhood,  united  in  his  ab 
solute  vigor,  I  look  with  glorying  to  the  day  when  the  black  reg 
iments  shall  stream  to  the  capital  of  the  Montezumas,  while  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  becoming  the  Army  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
shall  march  to  Quebec  and  Montreal.  (Enthusiastic  applause, 
with  great  cheering  and  waving  of  hats.)  And  if  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  and  the  wisdom  that  shall  preside  over  the  Navy  Depart 
ment,  our  navy  shall  reach  the  magnificent  proportions  of  our 
army,  and  the  navy  of  England  shall  meet  her  equal  on  the  seas, 
if  it  shall  only  be  the  will  of  God  that  the  nation's  great  admiral, 
Dupont,  shall  live  to  lead  it  on  the  ocean  (applause),  then  I  trust 
to  live  to  hear  of  the  explosion  of  the  bombshells  over  the  dome 
of  St.  Paul's,  and  of  the  arches  of  London  bridge  sent  into  the  air. 
(Great  applause.) 

Y 


REMAKES  AT  THE  RECEPTION  OP  RUSSIAN 
NAVAL  OFFICERS. 

ON  the  12th  of  October,  1863,  a  dinner  was  given  at  the  Astor  House 
in  New  York  by  prominent  gentlemen  of  that  city  in  honor  of  the  Rus 
sian  minister,  and  the  Russian  Admiral  Lisovski,  commanding  the  Rus 
sian  fleet  then  in  New  York  Harbor.  This  entertainment  had  a  peculiar 
significance,  from  the  fact  that  at  that  moment  our  relations  with  England 
and  France  were  by  no  means  cordial,  growing  out  of  the  temper  excited 
in  the  United  States  by  the  disposition  of  the  French  government  to  rec 
ognize  the  "  Confederate  States,"  and,  conjointly  with  England,  to  inter 
fere  forcibly  to  break  the  blockade  of  Southern  ports.  Russia  alone  of 
the  European  powers  had  shown  a  friendly  regard  and  disposition  toward 
the  federal  government.  The  occasion  of  a  visit  by  the  Russian  fleet  to 
the  United  States  waters  was  eagerly  taken  advantage  of  to  manifest  the 
appreciation  here  of  that  feeling. 

Mr.  Davis  was  invited  to  the  entertainment,  and  to  respond  to  the 
second  regular  toast — "  The  President  of  the  United  States,  the  elected 
leader  of  the  nation  which  is  solving  the  problem  of  self-government  and 
universal  freedom" — which  he  did  in  the  following  words : 

ME.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN, — I  regard  it  as  one  of  the 
privileges  of  my  life  to  have  been  selected  on  this  occasion  to  re 
spond  to  a  toast  to  the  President  of  the  United  States.  There  are 
others  who,  by  long  association  with  that  gentleman,  earlier  his 
political  supporters  than  myself,  more  closely  connected  with  him 
in  the  administration  of  great  affairs  in  this  great  crisis  of  our  his 
tory,  might  have  had  that  task  more  appropriately  confided  to 
them.  But  to  none  could  it  have  been  confided  who  would  have 
with  more  pleasure  and  more  heartiness  borne  his  testimony  to 
the  earnest  uprightness  of  purpose  and  far-seeing  sagacity  with 
which,  in  affairs  more  gravely  complex  and  weighty  than  this  na 
tion,  since  the  Revolution,  had  ever  been  called  upon  to  deal  with, 
the  President  has  discharged  his  high  duty.  None  can  speak  with 
more  profound  reverence  than  I  do  of  that  exalted  office,  as  exalt 
ed  as  any  known  among  men,  conferred  by  the  suffrages  of  his 
fellow-citizens,  and  to  whose  power  obedience  is  yielded,  not  be- 


RECEPTION  OF  RUSSIAN  NAVAL  OFFICERS.  339 

cause  of  his  power,  but  because  of  the  veneration  for  the  laws 
which  raised  him  to  his  high  post.  So  far  I  am  not  willing  that 
any  one  shall  claim  more  earnestly  to  represent  the  President  of 
the  United  States  than  I  do.  I  may  be  pardoned  for  saying  that 
the  following  clause  of  the  toast  I  must  be  permitted  to  criticise  : 
"The  elected  chief  of  the  nation."  Certainly.  " Solving  the 
problem  of  self-government."  No.  We  take  it  that  this  nation 
has  solved  that  problem.  (Applause.)  That  day  of  experiment 
has  passed.  This  vessel  was  launched  on  the  waters  with  many 
a  trembling  hope  and  many  a  prayerful  utterance  that  it  might 
survive  the  storms  of  life,  and  continue  to  be  the  light  to  other 
nations  of  the  earth.  Those  fears  are  now  dispelled — dispelled 
by  more  than  eighty  years  of  such  success  as  has  attended  no  ex 
periment  of  human  wisdom.  After  three  generations  now  mould 
ering  in  the  grave  under  the  aegis  of  the  republic,  having  lived  in 
peace  and  died  in  blessedness,  shall  we  call  that  an  experiment  ? 
Whose  affairs  have  been  conducted  with  more  regularity  and  or 
der  ?  Where  in  the  civilized  world  has  order  been  more  secure  ? 
Where  has  personal  liberty  been  less  violated  ?  Where  the  rights 
of  religious  conscience  and  free  speech  so  much  respected  ?  Where 
has  yet  the  first  drop  of  blood  for  treason  to  be  shed  in  the  civil 
ized  world  ?  And,  until  this  rebellion  broke  out,  where  in  all  the 
world  have  arms  not  been  drawn  by  citizen  against  citizen  to 
maintain  or  to  prostrate  the  experiment  of  the  law  ?  No ;  it  is 
no  experiment.  It  is  a  reality,  vindicating  now  the  right,  in  the 
success  of  eighty  years,  to  continue  to  eternity  to  bear  the  torch 
of  human  freedom."  (Great  applause.) 

Speaking  of  England's  hostility  to  the  United  States,  Mr.  Davis  said : 

National  hostility  carried  away  men's  hearts  to  swell  the  am 
bition  of  commercial  triumph  and  rivalry,  turned  away  the  high 
thoughts  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  nation.  Her  aristocracy  re 
joiced  that  the  prophecies  of  our  passing  greatness  were  coming 
to  be  truths,  and  they  thought  that  they  might  as  well  give  a  push 
to  help  the  prophecy  to  its  accomplishment.  That  we  have  tried 
to  be  friends  with  all  the  world  is  notorious.  That  we  have  tried 
to  forget  these  things,  and  that  we  have  forgiven  them,  is  especial 
ly  in  the  memory  of  all  you  gentlemen  of  New  York ;  for  how 
long  has  it  been  since — for  the  representative  of  that  power  which 
within  the  last  two  years  has  inflicted  deeper  wounds  on  your 


340  RECEPTION  OF  RUSSIAN  NAVAL  OFFICERS. 

body  than  all  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world — your  streets  were 
swarming  with  multitudes,  and  resounding  with  hosannas  to  the 
prospective  heir  of  the  crown  of  the  three  islands  ?  And  our 
reward  has  been  the  Trent  impertinence,  the  Florida,  the  Alaba 
ma,  the  pirate  nest  around  our  coast.  Another  great  nation  we 
thought  we  were  entitled  to  the  sympathy  of — ay,  and  we  have 
the  sympathy  of  the  nation,  though,  perhaps,  not  of  its  ruler.  It 
is  the  proud  peculiarity  of  the  American  people  that  their  heart 
is  so  large,  and  touches  humanity  at  so  many  points,  that,  however 
the  rulers  of  the  world  may  be  jealous  of  a  power  hostile  to  her 
greatness  and  desiring  her  overthrow,  the  people  in  their  secret 
heart  pray  for  her  success. 

The  last  part  of  the  toast  to  which  I  am  called  on  to  respond 
speaks  of  universal  freedom.  (Hurrah.)  History  will  show  no 
example  of  an  equal  struggle  within  the  limits  of  any  one  nation, 
met  with  equal  power,  sustained  with  equal  endurance,  crowned 
with  equal  success,  promising  equal  triumph  with  that  in  which 
we  are  engaged.  But  I  turn  to  another  subject — the  palm  of  tri 
umph  belonging  to  the  empire  of  Kussia.  There  serfdom — cov 
ering  twenty,  thirty,  forty  millions  of  subjects,  by  the  fiat  of  one 
man,  and  the  assent  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  peaceful 
ly,  quietly,  deliberately,  with  compensation  to  injured  interests, 
with  provision  for  the  serf  converted  into  a  freeman — has  vanish 
ed  like  the  morning  clouds  (applause);  and  this  day,  from  one  end 
of  the  empire  of  Eussia  to  the  other,  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  and 
sets  in  the  west  only  on  freemen.  (Loud  applause.)  Now,  the 
men  of  America,  having  faith  in  an  overruling  Providence,  know 
that  that  retrograde  motion  which  planets  sometimes  seem  to  have 
is  because  we  regard  them  from  wrong  points  of  view ;  but  when 
we  take  the  central  situation  in  the  universe,  we  recognize  that 
they  are  circling  round  the  centre  of  light.  And  so  it  is  destined 
to  continue  until  nations  shall  roll  up  like  a  scroll,  and  all  created 
things  shall  be  wrapped  in  the  bosom  of  the  Creator. 


NO  PEACE  TILL  AFTER  REBEL  SUBMISSION. 

ON  the  evening  of  the  9th  of  October,  Mr.  Davis,  in  response  to  an  in 
vitation,  addressed  a  large  meeting  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  upon  the  condition  of  public  affairs.  He  urged  the  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  inaugurated  by  the  rebels  in  the  South,  and  his 
argument  was  especially  directed  against  the  "  Peace"  party,  which  now 
was  endeavoring  to  instill  hopes  of  a  settlement  of  the  great  controversy 
in  any  other  mode  than  by  victories  in  the  field.  He  maintained  then 
that  there  was  no  government  in  the  rebellious  States — no  lawful  govern 
ment — none  that  the  federal  authorities  could  in  any  manner  recognize. 
When  their  armed  opposition  shall  be  swept  away,  it  would  then  be  for 
the  Congress  to  reorganize  those  States,  establish  there  and  guarantee 
a  republican  form  of  government.  He  said  that 

"  Before  next  year  Maryland  will  have  wiped  out  slavery  from 
her  soil ;  and  if  the  Congress  to  meet  in  December  should  do  its 
duty,  we  should  have  a  free  republic  from  Maine  to  Florida  in  less 
than  two  years.  Let  those  who  think  the  negro  not  good  enough 
to  serve  by  their  side  remember  that  they  served  in  the  ranks  of 
George  Washington  and  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

"I  never  sympathized  with  the  radical  Abolitionists,  for  I 
thought  them  one  hair's  breadth  this  side  of  craziness.  I  know 
that,  with  only  a  feeble  influence,  they  have  been  used  by  North 
ern  Democrats  and  Southern  Secessionists  to  smut  and  blacken 
all  the  rest  of  the  people  of  the  North.  Now,  when  the  nation  is 
on  the  point  of  triumph  ;  now,  when  the  only  thing  that  fires  the 
Southern  heart  is  the  success  of  the  opposition  here,  and  the  hope 
that  Mr.  Seymour  will  come  to  their  aid ;  now,  when  the  last  ap 
peal  is  being  made ;  now,  even,  some  men  begin  to  prate  about 
( negro  equality,'  and  revive  the  old  prejudices  which  the  enemies 
of  the  republic  alone  use  for  our  mischief,  and  which  no  man  can 
use  for  our  good.  And  I  say — as  little  regard  as  I  have  for  the 
Abolitionists — that  the  man  who  now  utters  a  word  for  the  pur 
pose  of  awakening  prejudice  against  any  man  on  the  side  of  the  gov 
ernment,  is  either  a  traitor  at  heart,  or  so  low  in  intelligence  that 
he  does  not  know  the  consequences  of  his  acts." 


342      NO  PEACE  TILL  AFTER  KEBEL  SUBMISSION. 

There  is  no  complete  report  of  the  speech.  The  extracts  and  account 
given  above  are  from  the  New  York  papers  of  the  following  day  (Octo 
ber  10th). 

The  Thirty-eighth  Congress  met  on  December  7, 1863.  On  the  14th 
Mr.  Davis  was  named  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
and  chairman  of  a  special  committee  of  nine,  to  which  was  referred  "  so 
much  of  the  President's  Message  as  relates  to  the  duty  of  the  United 
States  to  guarantee  a  republican  form  of  government  to  the  States  in 
which  the  governments  recognized  by  the  United  States  have  been  abro 
gated  or  overthrown." 

On  the  14th  of  January,  18G4,  a  joint  resolution  was  before  the  House 
"  explanatory  of  an  act  to  suppress  insurrection,  punish  treason  and  re 
bellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes." 
After  a  speech  from  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  in  opposition  thereto,  Mr. 
Davis  addressed  the  House  in  the  following  speech t 


CONFISCATION  OP  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the 
Union,  and  having  under  consideration  the  bill  to  confiscate  the  proper 
ty  of  rebels,  Mr.  Davis  said : 

ME.  SPEAKER, — With  whatever  pleasure  the  gentlemen  upon 
this  side  of  the  House  may  have  heard  the  very  novel  declaration 
of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  that  he  contemplated  supporting  in 
all  proper  measures  the  administration  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  and  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  it  is  perhaps  fortunate 
that  the  result  of  the  political  elections  in  the  central  slave  States 
has  placed  the  administration  beyond  the  necessity  of  relying  upon 
his  support.  Were  it  not  so,  I  incline  to  think  that  the  kind  of 
support  the  administration  would  receive  from  the  great  majority 
of  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  was  indicated  early 
in  the  session  in  that  resolution  proposed  by  a  gentleman  from 
New  York  [Mr.  Fernando  Wood],  which  pronounced  this  an  in 
human  war.  For  myself,  sir,  relying  on  the  fact  that  the  people 
have  sent  enough  of  us  here  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  ad 
ministration,  I  would  suggest  that  perhaps  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House  had  just  as  well  execute  the  mission  with  which 
the  constituents  that  elected  them  charged  them — to  oppose,  to 
embarrass,  to  libel,  and  to  break  down  the  administration — and 
leave  the  support  of  it  to  gentlemen  whom  the  people  sent  here  to 
maintain  it.  With  all  due  respect  to  the  patriotic  purposes,  the 
eminent  ability  of  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  when  they  ten 
der  support  I  shall  look  at  it  with  something  of  suspicion,  and,  for 
myself,  shall  say,  "  Non  tali  auxilio,  nee  defensoribus  istis" 

A  specimen  of  that  support,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  exhibited  by  the 
mode  in  which  the  bill  brought  in  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  the  Judiciary  has  been  received  on  that  side  of  the 
House.  It  relates  to  what  is  now  the  settled  policy  of  the  admin 
istration,  which  gentlemen  say  they  intend  to  support  in  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion.  Whether  one  degree  or  another  of  con 
fiscation  be  expedient,  whether  it  be  extended  to  the  lower  actors 
in  this  great  scene,  or,  as  in  my  judgment  is  proper,  it  be  confined 


344         CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

to  a  few  of  the  leaders,  still,  that  the  confiscation  of  property  shall 
attach  to  some  portion  of  the  people  engaged  in  the  rebellion  is 
now  the  settled,  resolved  policy  of  the  administration.  The  bill 
introduced  by  the  Judiciary  Committee  is  in  furtherance  of  that 
policy.  A  joint  resolution,  in  my  judgment  a  very  unwise  one, 
of  the  last  Congress,  limited  the  operation  of  the  Confiscation  Law 
to  life  estates.  This  bill  contemplates  the  obliteration  of  that  lim 
itation.  I  think  its  language  does  not  accomplish  that  purpose, 
and  therefore  I  shall  vote  for  jthe  amendment  of  the  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens],  which  goes  directly  to  the  ob 
ject  sought  to  be  accomplished  by  repealing  the  limiting  reso 
lution. 

But  there  we  are  met  by  the  new  supporters  of  the  administra 
tion  with  the  suggestion  that  this  is  uprooting  "the  fundamental 
law  of  the  republic.  I  ask  where  ?  What  word  in  the  Constitu 
tion  does  it  violate?  What  principle  does  it  in  the  least  degree 
impeach?  They  quote  the  clause  of  the  Constitution  declaring 
that  Congress  shall  have  power  to  declare  the  punishment  of  trea 
son,  but  that  no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work  corruption  of 
blood  or  forfeiture,  except  during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted. 

If  I  have  read  aright  the  Confiscation  Law  of  the  last  Congress, 
it  nowhere  attaches  any  confiscation  or  forfeiture  to  a  conviction 
for  treason  or  to  an  attainder  of  treason.  Am  I  right  or  am  I 
wrong?  There  is  no  word  in  the  law  of  the  last  Congress  that 
attaches  confiscation  of  property  to  conviction  of  the  person  for 
treason,  to  attainder  of  the  person  for  treason,  on  a  criminal  pro 
ceeding  in  any  court  of  justice.  If  that  be  so,  then  the  quotation 
of  the  clause  from  the  Constitution  is  simply  irrelevant  to  the 
matter  in  debate,  for  it  is  that  no  ATTAINDER  of  treason  shall 
work  corruption  of  blood  or  forfeiture  except  during  the  life  of 
the  party ;  so  that,  if  there  be  no  proceeding  by  indictment,  there 
can  be  no  attainder ;  and  if  there  be  no  attainder,  there  is  nothing 
on  which  the  residue  of  the  words  in  the  Constitution  can  operate. 
That  simple  observation  disposes  of  the  whole  argument.  It  is 
wholly  immaterial  whether,  in  the  event  of  the  party's  being  con 
victed  of  treason,  Congress  can  or  can  not  make  a  consequence  of 
the  judgment  the  forfeiture  of  lands  in  fee  simple,  or  is  confined 
to  a  forfeiture  limited  in  duration  by  the  life  of  the  convict. 

The  question  here  is  whether  there  is  any  process  of  law,  how 
ever  this  provision  be  construed,  by  which  we  can  effect  a  for- 


CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY.         345 

feiture  of  the  whole  fee  in  lands.  That  question  gentlemen  have 
nowhere  met. 

If,  however,  the  Constitution  limits  the  consequences  of  a  con 
viction  to  a  forfeiture  for  life,  to  assume  that  it  limits  every  other 
form  of  process  of  law  in  like  manner  is  simply  begging  the  ques 
tion.  The  Constitution  speaks  for  itself.  It  limits  the  operation 
of  an  attainder.  It  limits  nothing  else.  "When,  therefore,  gentle 
men  accuse  us  here  of  uprooting  the  settled  law  of  the  land,  they 
interpolate  language  not  in  the  law,  and  quote  it  to  condemn  us. 
But  even  if  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution  itself  were  doubtful 
in  a  case  of  attainder,  where  the  question  would  be  whether  the 
judgment  of  the  court  should  be  for  the  forfeiture  of  the  land  for 
life  or  in  fee,  no  decision  on  that  could  affect  any  other  process  of 
law  for  confiscating  lands  without  attainder.  The  doubt  upon 
that  question  can  not  apply  to  a  subject  beyond  the  purview  of 
the  question. 

Still  it  is  worth  while  to  hazard  a  suggestion  touching  the  real 
meaning  of  those  words  so  confidently  invoked  by  our  new  allies 
for  our  confusion.  I  desire  to  speak  with  all  modesty  in  solving 
this  problem,  for  difficulties  beset  every  solution,  and  while  it  is 
quite  clear  that  its  meaning  is  not  that  assumed  by  our  new  allies, 
it  is  perhaps  not  so  easy  to  give  a  demonstrably  right  solution. 
I  speak  with  hesitation,  because  their  confidence  surprised  me  into 
assuming  once  before  the  correctness  of  their  interpretation.  I 
think,  however,  the  technical  language  of  the  clause,  read  in  the 
sense  it  bore  in  the  English  law,  may  light  us  on  our  way.  I 
think  it  points  to  a  very  different  meaning  from  that  which  the 
honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Cox]  supposes. 

No  attainder  shall  work  corruption  of  blood  or  forfeiture  except 
during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted.  Now  I  take  it  that  the 
meaning  of  that-  clause  is  that  the  forfeiture  worked  must  be  ef 
fected  during  life.  The  honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio,  and  those 
who  think  with  him,  would  construe  it  to  be  that  the  forfeiture, 
when  worked,  shall  only  endure  for  the  life  of  the  party.  Palpa 
bly  the  latter  is  the  incorrect  and  the  former  the  legal  meaning. 
The  purpose  assumed  is  the  protection  of  the  offspring  from  pun 
ishment  for  the  guilt  of  the  ancestor.  But  a  fine  is  equally  taken 
from  the  offspring,  as  land ;  yet  no  one  denies  the  right  to  fine  a 
person  attainted.  There  was,  however,  an  effect  of  attainder  that 
did  punish  the  offspring,  and  the  offspring  alone.  Every  student 


346         CONFISCATION  OF  KEBEL  PROPERTY. 

of  Blackstone  knows  that  the  judgment  convicting  a  person  of 
treason  operated  a  corruption  of  blood.  The  corruption  of  blood 
stopped  the  transmission  of  hereditable  blood  to  any  heir  of  the 
person  attainted ;  so  that  the  legal  effect  of  conviction  for  treason 
under  the  law  of  England  was,  first,  to  forfeit  all  the  property,  real 
and  personal,  of  the  person  attainted,  and,  secondly,  to  corrupt  his 
blood,  destroy  its  heritable  quality,  so  that  he  could  neither  take 
land  by  descent  himself,  nor  transmit  heritable  blood  to  the  per 
sons  who  would,  but  for  his  attainder,  have  been  his  heirs.  He 
could,  in  the  language  of  the  law,  neither  be  heir  nor  have  heirs. 

Now,  suppose  the  father  of  any  person  attainted  for  treason 
died  the  day  after  the  execution,  owning  lands,  they  could  not 
pass  to  the  traitor's  son,  nor  to  any  collateral  relation  claiming  by 
descent  through  him,  because  the  operation  of  the  judgment,  be 
sides  forfeiting  the  land  owned  by  the  party  in  his  lifetime,  had 
corrupted  his  blood,  and  no  one  could  trace  descent  through  him. 
He  was  a  bar,  cutting  off  the  relationship  between  grandfather 
and  grandson.  Land  which  would  have  come  to  the  grandson  if 
the  father  had  not  been  a  person  attainted,  instead  of  going  to  the 
heir,  was  arrested  in  its  transit  to  the  heir  by  the  corruption  of 
blood,  and  passed  either  to  the  lord  of  the  fee  or  to  the  king. 

So  that  the  Constitution  deals  merely  with  corruption  of  blood 
and  its  operation.  There  shall  be  no  corruption  of  blood  or  for 
feiture  worked  by  attainder  except  during  the  life  of  the  person. 
Attainder  worked  no  forfeiture  after  the  death  of  the  party  except 
by  the  corruption  of  blood.  The  forfeiture  of  a  fee-simple  estate 
was  not  a  forfeiture  after  the  life  of  the  party ;  the  whole  fee  was 
in  the  person  attainted ;  his  heirs  had  no  interest  in  it,  and  no  law 
yer  would  ever  dream  of  describing  a  forfeiture  for  life  by  the 
words  of  the  Constitution,  or  describe  the  forfeiture  of  a  fee-simple 
estate  as  a  forfeiture  worked  by  attainder  after  the  life  of  the  par 
ty.  It  was  one  of  the  settled  laws  of  England  at  that  time,  and 
which  also  prevailed  in  some  of  the  States  of  this  Union,  that  the 
corruption  of  blood  did,  what  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  so  prop 
erly  execrates,  operate  upon  innocent  persons  with  reference  to 
their  rights  coming  from  a  different  source  after  the  criminal  had 
expiated  his  crime.  Now,  without  meaning  to  say  positively  that 
that  is  the  meaning  and  operation  of  the  section,  I  say  that  in  my 
judgment  it  comes  nearer  an  intelligible  exposition  of  it  than  any 
such  theory  as  this,  that  you  can  not  take  lands  in  fee,  but  you 


CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY.         347 

may  take  all  his  personal  property  absolutely,  which  was  the 
ground  of  the  President's  threatened  veto  of  last  year ;  that  you 
can  fine  a  man  to  the  extent  of  his  estate,  but  you  can  not  take 
his  lands  to  pay  the  fine.  And  being  unintelligible,  with  all  re 
spect  to  our  recent  friends,  they  are  driven  to  say  that  in  the  pun 
ishment  of  treason  the  Constitution  has  been  guilty  of  this  intol 
erable  folly :  that  for  robbing  the  mail,  or  piracy,  for  any  ordinary 
offense,  or  murder  on  the  seas,  or  in  the  army  or  navy  for  any 
other  crime,  Congress  may  prescribe  what  punishment  they  please ; 
take  the  land  in  fee ;  in  their  sense  make  a  forfeiture  after  death ; 
but  in  providing  for  the  punishment  of  treason,  the  greatest  crime, 
the  most  dangerous  crime,  it  has  feebly  attempted  to  protect  inno 
cent  offspring  by  saving  the  lands  of  the  convict,  but  leaving  his 
life  and  all  his  personal  property  at  the  mercy  of  the  law ;  that  it 
has  been  guilty  of  sanctioning  the  unrepublican  discrimination 
between  real  and  personal  property,  and  adopting  the  aristocratic 
idea  that  land  was  something  that  must  not  be  taken,  but  pre 
served  for  the  heir,  to  come  down  to  him  by  a  perpetual  constitu 
tional  entail.  And  this  anti-republican  view  is  urged  to  fetter  us 
in  breaking  the  power  of  an  aristocratic  rebellion  founded  on  land 
in  large  bodies  and  on  negroes.  Were  there  no  other  objection 
in  this,  that  simple  reductio  ad  absurdum  disposes  of  the  argument. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  question  here,  as  I  have  said,  is  not,  what 
forfeiture  does  it  allow  an  attainder  to  work,  but  does  it  declare 
that  no  forfeiture,  that  no  confiscation  under  any  process  of  law 
shall  affect  land  for  a  longer  period  than  the  life  of  the  owner? 
Does  it  apply  to  any  case  where  there  is  no  attainder,  no  con 
viction  ? 

The  law  of  the  last  Congress  prescribed  a  different  process  from 
conviction  in  a  court  of  law  of  the  person  guilty  of  the  crime.  It 
provides  that  upon  proceedings  in  the  District  Court  in  the  nature 
of  proceedings  in  admiralty  the  lands  of  certain  classes  of  persons, 
and  all  their  personal  property,  shall  be  forfeited  for  the  use  of 
the  government. 

And  the  Constitution  provides  that  the  property  of  citizens 
shall  not  be  taken  without  due  process  of  law.  Now,  the  question 
which  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  have  to  argue  is, 
not  the  law  of  attainder,  but  whether  the  process  in  the  District 
Courts  of  the  United  States  to  confiscate  the  property  of  persons 
proved  to  be  of  the  specified  classes  is  due  process  of  law  for  de 
priving  a  man  of  his  property  under  the  Constitution.  If  they  can 


348         CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

not  maintain  that  it  is  not  due  process  of  law  within  the  meaning 
of  the  Constitution,  they  can  not  throw  the  least  doubt  on  the  con 
stitutionality  of  this  mode  of  procedure. 

If  this  were  a  new  question,  possibly  there  might  be  room  for 
argument.  But  from  the  first  administration  down  to  this  day 
there  has  never  been  a  day  in  which,  on  the  statute-books  of  the 
United  States,  exactly  this  process  to  forfeit  property  for  crime 
without  first  convicting  the  owner  on  indictment  has  not  been 
prescribed.  The  law  of  1799,  among  the  first  of  the  revenue  laws, 
forfeited  property  brought  in  under  fraudulent  invoices,  without 
proceeding  against  the  individual  personally ;  and  all  the  revenue 
laws  from  that  day  to  this  enforce  these  provisions  by  forfeitures 
and  proceedings  in  rem. 

The  navigation  laws  of  the  United  States,  from  the  earliest 
days  of  the  republic,  inflict  forfeiture  in  the  District  Court  on  pro 
ceedings  against  the  vessel  for  violation  of  those  laws  without 
prosecuting  the  owner,  though  liable  to  indictment.  Who  ever 
heard  that  a  vessel  could  not  be  forfeited  unless  the  master  or 
owner  were  indicted,  or  until  after  they  had  been  indicted?  Our 
laws  regulating  trade  with  the  Indians  make  it  penal  to  carry  ar 
dent  spirits  among  them,  and  they  punish  the  persons  guilty  and 
forfeit  the  property  by  process  in  rein  in  the  District  Court.  Is 
that  unconstitutional  ? 

The  law  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade  makes  the  parties 
violating  it  guilty  of  piracy,  and  they  are  liable  either  to  be  hung 
or  confined  in  the  penitentiary,  according  to  the  grade  of  the  of 
fense.  But  yet  the  vessels  caught  are  always  forfeited,  whether 
owner  or  master  be  prosecuted  or  not.  Was  it  ever  heard  that 
the  person  must  be  convicted  of  the  crime  before  the  vessel  could 
be  forfeited  in  the  District  Court?  These  things  are  of  every-day 
practice,  as  every  gentleman  at  all  familiar  with  the  ordinary  ad 
ministration  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  knows.  In  a  word, 
indictment  and  conviction  of  the  person  is  not  the  only  due  pro 
cess  of  law  by  which  a  person  may  be  deprived  of  his  property. 
The  daily  process  of  levying  taxes  proves  that.  And  Congress 
has  pleased  to  authorize  confiscation  without  conviction,  but  in  the 
time-honored  forms  of  the  early  republic. 

And  another  species  of  property  about  which  gentlemen  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  House  usually  show  more  interest  than 
about  lands — property  in  negroes — affords  a  more  striking  illus 
tration.  We  have  in  that  case  the  same  principle  of  confiscating 


CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY.         349 

property  before  conviction  of  the  delinquent,  settled  by  the  laws 
of  Maryland  and  of  Virginia,  adopted  by  Congress  as  the  laws  in 
the  two  counties  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  the  earliest 
days  of  the  republic  down  to  the  day  on  which  I  am  speaking. 
The  law  of  Virginia  goes  as  far  back  as  the  days  of  Jefferson.  It 
prohibited  the  introduction  of  slaves  into  Virginia  from  any  other 
State  and  from  foreign  countries ;  and  while  it  prescribed  the 
penalty  on  the  party  so  introducing  them,  it  also  declared  the 
slave  free.  The  gentlemen  from  Maryland  here  know  very  well 
that  was  the  law  of  Maryland  down  to  within  a  few  years,  and,  in 
some  cases,  it  is  so  now.  When  Congress  adopted  the  laws  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  both  of  those  statutes  were  the  laws  of 
this  district,  and  they  were  in  force  down  to  the  time  of  the  eman 
cipation  of  slaves  in  this  District. 

Now,  what  was  the  ordinary  process  in  these  cases  ?  I  do  not 
remember  in  my  experience  while  practicing  as  a  lawyer,  either 
in  Virginia  or  the  District  of  Columbia  or  in  Maryland,  of  an  in 
dictment  or  action  for  the  fine  or  forfeiture  against  a  party  intro 
ducing  negroes.  It  was  the  every-day  practice  when  I  came  to 
the  bar  that  negroes  brought  into  that  part  of  the  District  which 
was  on  the  south  of  the  Potomac  Eiver  contrary  to  law,  should 
apply  to  the  court  and  bring  a  suit  for  their  freedom ;  and  it  was 
in  the  ordinary  form  of  an  action  for  trespass,  complaining  that 
the  master  had  illegally  imprisoned  them,  and  the  judgment  of  the 
court  was  one  cent  damage  against  the  master  for  the  imprison 
ment.  The  question  really  involved  was  freedom  or  slavery. 
The  law  vested  freedom ;  the  court  authenticated  it.  In  other 
words,  the  operation  of  the  law  was  that  the  act  of  bringing  a  ne 
gro  across  the  line  invested  him  with  his  freedom ;  that  it  de 
prived  the  master  of  his  property,  and  invested  the  negro  with  the 
right  to  sue  the  man  for  the  wrong  committed  by  continuing  to 
hold  him.  That  has  been  adjudged  again  and  again  by  the  courts 
of  Virginia  and  by  the  courts  of  Maryland ;  and  though  writs  of 
error  have  more  than  once  carried  such  cases  in  this  District  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  that  tribunal  never  dreamed  that  this  was  a 
forfeiture  of  property  without  due  process  of  law.  If  gentlemen 
will  take  the  trouble  to  run  through  the  volumes  of  the  Supreme 
Court  Eeports,  they  will  find  several  cases ;  one  so  recent  as  2 
Howard,  in  which  that  form  of  proceeding  was  recognized  as  a 
competent  mode  in  which  to  assert  the  right  of  freedom,  which 
was  a  forfeiture  of  the  master's  right.  The  man  who  was  a  slave 


350         CONFISCATION  OF  KEBEL  PROPERTY. 

on  the  other  side  of  the  line  became  a  freeman  by  being  brought 
this  side  of  the  line ;  his  master  was  not  indicted,  nor  was  his  free 
dom  a  consequence  of  the  conviction  of,  nor  of  a  judgment  against 
his  master, 'but  he  acquired  his  title  to  freedom  by  the  act  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  inflicted  forfeiture  on  his 
master  for  violating  it. 

Congress,  during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  think, 
in  organizing  the  Territories  of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  in  like 
manner  forbade  the  introduction  of  slaves  from  abroad,  and  freed 
them  when  introduced  by  the  master.  And  if  we  are  to  be  told 
that  this  was  antique  legislation,  and  not  fit  for  the  light  of  these 
modern  days,  I  ask  gentlemen  to  read  the  compromise  measures 
of  1850,  brought  in  by  the  illustrious  Kentuckian,  Henry  Clay, 
and  passed  by  a  Congress  which  thought  fondly  they  had  averted 
the  agony  that  we  now  writhe  under ;  let  them  read  the  law  for 
bidding  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  where  the 
hand  of  Henry  Clay  traced  the  words  of  forfeiture — that  if  any 
slave  should  be  brought  into  this  District  by  its  owner,  contrary  to 
the  provisions  of  the  act,  he  should  thereupon  become  liberated  and 
free. 

Now  that  covers  all  the  Confiscation  Acts  of  the  last  Congress. 
It  is  wholly  immaterial  whether  it  relates  to  land  or  to  personal 
property,  whether  you  forfeit  lands  or  negroes.  The  forfeiture  of 
slaves  would  even  meet  the  technical  objection  of  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio,  because  formerly  in  Virginia,  as  every  body  knows, 
slaves  were  real  estate,  not  personal  estate,  passing  to  the  heirs, 
and  not  to  the  executors ;  and  it  is  only  of  late  years  that  they 
have  been  treated  as  personal  estate,  though  in  the  widow's  share 
of  them  the  traces  of  their  real  character  still  remain  visible.  Now 
the  question  that  is  involved  in  the  Confiscation  Law  is  not 
whether  attainder  can  work  corruption  of  blood  affecting  the 
heirs ;  of  course  it  can  not ;  it  is  not  whether  attainder  can  oper 
ate  forfeiture  of  lands  descending  after  the  death  of  the  attainted 
person,  nor  whether  an  attainder  is  confined  to  carving  a  life  es 
tate  by  forfeiture  out  of  a  fee ;  that  is  not  the  question.  The 
question  is  whether,  by  other  process  of  law  not  connected  with 
indictment  of  the  person,  not  following  upon  attainder,  the  United 
States  government  can  say  that  those  who  have  been  in  arms 
against  it  shall  forfeit  their  property,  and  that  the  tribunals  of  the 
country  shall  enforce  it  in  rem ;  and  this  is  settled  by  the  tradi 
tional  laws  of  the  republic. 


DEAFT  AND  COMMUTATION.— COLOEED 
TEOOPS. 

DURING  the  discussion  of  the  "  Conscription  Bill''  Mr.  Davis  opposed 
exemption  from  military  service  by  payment  of  commutation-money,  "  ex 
cept  in  favor  of  ministers  of  religion  actually  in  charge  of  some  congre 
gation — of  men  having  a  wife  or  child  dependent  on  them  for  support,  and 
not  having  an  income  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  independent  of  their  in 
dustry — of  members  of  the  religious  society  of  Friends,  or  other  religious 
denominations  conscientiously  opposed  to  bearing  arms." 

He  also  moved  (February  10)  to  strike  out  from  an  amendment  pro 
posed  so  much  as  provided  for  the  payment  of  three  hundred  dollars  to 
the  owner  of  any  drafted  slave,  on  the  ground  that  if  slaves  were  liable 
to  military  duty  at  all,  they  are  so  precisely  as  all  who  owe  obedience  to 
the  laws  are  liable.  To  the  objection  that  otherwise  the  government 
would  be  taking  the  property  of  the  owner  (in  the  labor  of  the  slave)  with 
out  compensation,  he  said : 

"I  beg  pardon,  sir.  The  son  owes  to  the  father  labor,  by  the 
law  of  every  State  in  the  Union,  as  assuredly  as  the  slave  owes 
the  master  labor.  We  do  not  necessarily  make  the  slave  a  free 
man  by  taking  him  for  a  soldier.  We  may  make  provision  that 
he  shall  be  free  thereafter.  When  the  son  is  taken,  when  the  ap 
prentice,  is  taken,  somebody  is  taken  who  is  quite  as  dear,  quite  as 
necessary,  quite  as  valuable  to  the  father  and  to  the  employer  as 
when  the  slave  is  taken  from  the  master.  In  other  words,  where 
the  obligation  of  military  service  rests,  the  law  pursues  it,  and  in 
sists  upon  it,  leaving  the  burden  of  other  losses  to  follow  the  ne 
cessities  of  the  times." 

Next  day  (February  11)  Mr.  Davis  moved  as  an  amendment  "  that  the  Secretary 
of  War  shall  appoint  a  commission  in  each  of  the  slave  States  represented  in  Con 
gress,  charged  to  award  a  just  compensation  to  each  loyal  owner  of  any  slave  who 
may  volunteer  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  payable  out  of  the  commutation- 
money  received,"  etc.  In  support  thereof,  he  said: 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  submit  this  amendment,  not  because  I  think 
it  due  at  all  to  the  owner  of  the  slave,  but  because  the  President 
and  the  Secretary  of  War,  in  executing  the  law  of  1862  allowing 


352          DRAFT  AND  COMMUTATION.— COLORED  TROOPS. 

the  President  to  use  and  organize  persons  of  African  descent  to 
suppress  the  rebellion,  have  seen  fit  to  appoint  a  commission, 
which  is  now  in  session  in  Maryland,  for  the  purpose  of  estima 
ting  the  value  of,  and  awarding  reasonable  compensation  to  the 
loyal  owners  of,  slaves  who  may  volunteer  into  the  United  States 
service  under  the  law  of  1862.  That  brings  the  volunteering  of 
slaves  into  some  sort  of  correspondence  with  the  established  pol 
icy  of  the  government  in  paying  bounties  to  volunteers,  the  differ 
ence  being  that  in  the  case  of  the  slave  the  bounty  is  paid  to  the 
master  instead,  on  freeing  his  slave,  whereas  the  bounty  in  the  case 
of  the  white  volunteer  of  course  goes  to  himself. 

"  It  is  a  very  different  thing  to  impose  on  the  government,  when 
it  is  driven  to  draft,  the  necessity  of  paying  to  every  slaveowner 
a  compensation  for  any  slave  that  may  be  drafted.  The  poor 
man,  whose  son  works  for  him  on  his  ten  acres,  receives  no  com 
pensation  for  that  son  when  he  is  drafted  into  the  service,  while 
the  wealthy  slaveholder,  who  may  have  three  or  four  hundred 
slaves  alongside,  is  to  receive  a  compensation  of  three  hundred 
dollars  for  every  one  of  his  slaves  who  may  be  drafted.  It  is  ap 
parent  that  if  the  government  has  the  right  to  draft  slaves  into  the 
service,  and  if  the  government  has  the  right  to  take  the  slave,  it 
has  the  right  to  take  him  exactly  as  it  takes  the  son,  the  father, 
or  the  brother  of  any  citizen  of  the  republic,  with  no  more  com 
pensation  and  no  less  compensation  for  discharging  the  duty  he 
owes  to  the  country." 


FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU.— DISPOSITION  TO  BE 
MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES. 

ON  the  25th  of  January,  the  House  having  resumed  the  consideration 
of  the  Bill  to  establish  a  Bureau  of  Freedmen's  Affairs,  Mr.  Davis  said  : 

MR.  SPEAKER  AND  GENTLEMEN, — The  bill  which  is  now  under 
consideration  involves  a  subject  forced  on  us  by  the  events  of  the 
war,  and  which  must  be  determined  one  way  or  the  other — the 
disposition  of  the  freed  negroes  in  the  rebel  States.  The  range 
of  debate  has  naturally  been  very  wide  upon  a  bill  of  this  char 
acter,  and  topics  not  perhaps  at  first  sight  very  directly  related  to 
it  have  been  dragged  into  the  discussion. 

The  votes  of  the  gentlemen  from  the  loyal  slave  States  cast  a 
new  light  on  the  mind  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr. 
Brooks]  respecting  the  fate  of  the  negro  race  on  this  continent, 
But,  while  he  justly  appreciated  the  great  and  decisive  weight  of 
that  vote  upon  the  speakership  of  this  House,  he  took  occasion  to 
discredit  the  moral  power  of  that  vote  by  impeaching  the  election 
of  tjje  representatives  who  cast  it.  He  thinks  they  speak  words 
not  authorized  by  the  people.  He  said : 

"  I  know  that  the  people  of  Maryland  and  of  Delaware,  if  they  had  been  allowed 
to  vote,  intended  no  such  decree" — 

That  is,  of  emancipation. 

"  And  I  know  that  it  is  said  those  two  States  are  better  represented  by  the  honora 
ble  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Schenck]  than  by  their  representatives  here." 

If  this  were  merely  meant  as  a  compliment  to  my  distinguished 
friend  from  Ohio,  I  would  be  among  the  first  to  admit  that  any 
district  of  Maryland,  as  well  as  any  in  New  York,  would  be  better 
represented  by  him  than  by  any  gentleman  representing  either 
State — even  the  gentleman  from  New  York.  But  when  it  comes 
in  the  shape  of  an  imputation  upon  the  validity  and  moral  force 
of  the  election,  it  questions  the  legitimacy  of  the  administration  ma 
jority  in  this  House,  and  must  not  pass  unanswered.  When  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  says  "  it  is  said  those  two  States  are 
better  represented  by  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio  than  by 

Z 


354  FKEEDMEN'S  BUEEAU. 

those  who  represent  them  here,"  no  person  who  cares  to  have 
any  respect  for  his  knowledge  of  the  public  affairs  of  the  day  has 
so  said.  And  when  the  honorable  gentleman  says  that  "  he  knows 
that  the  people  of  Maryland  and  Delaware,  had  they  been  allowed 
to  vote,  intended  no  such  decree,"  I  desire  to  say  that  the  honor 
able  gentleman  from  New  York  does  not  know  any  such  thing, 
and  knows  no  fact  that  makes  the  error  excusable. 

"Had  thev  been  allowed  to  vote!"     Who  hindered  them  from 

j 

voting?  Where  were  they  stopped  from  voting?  "  The  people 
of  Maryland !"  If  the  gentleman  means  to  say  that  because  the 
people  of  Maryland  determined  that  the  traitors  of  Maryland,  who 
disavowed  their  allegiance  to  the  government,  should  not  tarnish 
the  ballot-box  by  their  votes,  we  differ  about  the  terms,  but  not 
about  the  facts.  •We'cfocZ  mean  they  should  not  vote,  and  we  so 
meant  because  by  the  laws  of  Maryland  such  men  are  not  entitled 
to  vote.  They  who  disavow,  deny,  and  disown  their  allegiance 
to  the  United  States,  and  declare  and  avow  they  are  not  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  have  no  right  to  vote ;  and  so  the  judges  of 
election  held,  almost  from  one  end  of  Maryland  to  the  other.  If 
that  is  not  good  election  law,  this  House  can  say  so ;  the  General 
Assembly  of  Maryland  can  say  so ;  and  if  both  be  silent,  the  law 
is  confessed. 

If  the  gentleman  referred  to  the  complaints  which  are  made  of 
the  interference  of  the  military  in  the  election,  I  desire  to  say, that 
that  complaint  comes  from  nobody  but  heated  partisans  wholiowl 
because  they  are 'beaten.  Even  they  confined  the  complaint  to 
one  single  Congressional  district  out  of  five,  and  to  four  out  of 
eight  counties  in  that  Congressional  district ;  and  therefore,  con 
ceding  every  thing  that  is  complained  of,  and  every  thing  that  is 
inferred  from  the  complaint,  we  have  an  undisputed  election  in 
four  fifths  of  the  State,  which  the  gentlemen  who  make  the  com 
plaint  do  not  dispute.  No  one  questions  the  election  of  the  hon 
orable  member  from  the  Fifth  Congressional  District  [Mr.  Harris], 
where  the  divided  Union  vote  was  overborne  by  the  united  se 
cession  vote,  and  where  the  aggregate  vote  of  the  district  fell  only 
a  little  below  the  normal  vote  of  the  district  before  the  rebellion 
attracted  many  of  its  young  men  to  the  rebel  ranks.  My  honor 
able  friend  in  my  eye  from  the  Second  Congressional  District  [Mr. 
Webster]  could  find  no  competitor  to  meet  him  before  the  people. 
The  distinguished  gentleman,  the  senior  of  the  delegation  [Mr. 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  PKEE  NEGROES.  355 

Thomas],  from  the  Fourth  Congressional  District,  is  here  for  the 
second  time  an  unopposed  candidate.  And  I  am  here  because 
my  political  opponents  did  not  care  to  take  the  responsibilities  of 
a  canvass,  although  aided  and  urged  to  oppose  me  by  a  distin 
guished  adviser  of  the  President  up  to  within  a  week  of  the  elec 
tion.  So  that  of  all  the  State  of  Maryland,  whose  election  is  here 
impeached,  in  three  fifths  of  it  there  was  no  contest  whatever ;  in 
one  fifth  there  was  a  contest  in  which  our  opponents  had  so  free 
an  election  that  they  have  their  representative  on  this  floor ;  and 
in  the  other  fifth  the  contest  is  only  impeached  in  four  of  the 
eight  counties ;  and  if  the  whole  vote  which  was  not  cast  in  that 
district  be  added  to  the  aggregate  vote  of  our  opponents,  the 
emancipationists  will  still  have  a  majority  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 
thousand  in  the  State.  And  yet,  in  the  face  of  such  facts,  a  gen 
tleman,  who  is  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  an  intelligent  observer 
of  public  affairs,  rises  here  and  says  that  he  knows  that  if  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland  had  been  permitted  to  vote  they  would  not  have 
allowed  the  emancipation  candidate  for  Comptroller  to  carry  the 
State  by  twenty  thousand  majority ! 

In  Delaware  the 'case  is  still  more  absurd;  for,  after  an  ani 
mated  canvass,  the  opponent  of  the  representative  from  that  State 
withdrew  on  the  eve  of  the  election ;  and  yet  the  vojte  for  the  gen 
tleman  from  Delaware  was  the  largest  ever  cast  in  that  State  for 
any  candidate,  and  a  majority  of  the  whole  vote  of  the  State. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  is  overwhelmingly 
Union,  but  not  overwhelmingly  for  emancipation.  There  is  a 
majority  in  the  Senate  opposed  to  it,  and  there  is  a  majority  in 
the  House  who  were  not  in  favor  of  it  when  they  came  to  An 
napolis  ;  because,  though  elected  by  emancipation  constituencies, 
they  were  nominated  before  their  constituents  had  developed  their 
views  upon  the  subject.  But  this  election  which  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  wishes  to  impeach  carried  with  it  such  moral 
power  that  its  enemies  in  the  Senate  and  its  lukewarm  and  doubt 
ful  friends  in  the  House  of  Delegates  are  dragged  backward  over 
their  prejudices  and  compelled  to  pass  just  such  a  bill  as  we  dic 
tated  to  them,  and  it  stands  now  the  law  of  the  State  of  Maryland 
by  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  both  houses  of  the  Legislature. 
They  confessed  that  moral  power  which  the  honorable  gentleman 
ignorantly  denies. 

"Slavery  is  dead,"  says  the  honorable  gentleman.     "Slavery 


356  FKEEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

is  dead"  is  echoed  by  some  on  this  side  of  the  House.  "  Slavery 
is  dead"  is  echoed  from  the  too  sanguine  people  of  the  country. 
He  may  be  a  very  sick  man,  Mr.  Speaker,  but  I  assure  gentlemen 
of  this  House  and  the  country  that  he  is  not  dead ;  and  if  he  is 
not  done  to  death  he  will  be  your  master  again.  That  is  my 
opinion,  and  I  think  my  friend  from  Kentucky  in  my  eye  [Mr. 
Mallory]  agrees  with  me. 

Slavery  is  not  dead  in  Maryland.  We  have  to  carry  a  major 
ity  of  the  Convention  on  the  old  slavery  apportionment,  where 
one  fourth  of  the  population  ties  the  body ;  and  whether  the  hos 
tile  influence  that  presides  near  the  President's  ear  will  allow. 
Maryland  to  become  a  free  State,  or  will  fail  her  in  her  hour  of 
need,  remains  yet  to  be  seen.  Up  to  this  day  Maryland  is  under 
no  obligations  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  for  the  great 
strides  that  the  cause  of  emancipation  has  made  there.  A  Con 
vention  of  the  loyal  men,  the  emancipationists  of  Maryland,  on 
the  22d  of  this  month,  while  declaring  themselves  in  favor  of  im 
mediate  and  unconditional  emancipation,  and  while  expressing 
their  confidence  in  the  President  and  their  appreciation  of  his 
services,  added  this  significant  admonition,  worthy  of  the  State 
and  of  the  people  that  uttered  it : 

"Resolved,  That  this  Convention  is  in  favor  of  the  entire  and  immediate  abolition 
cf  slavery  in  this  State  and  in  the  States  in  rebellion,  and  is  opposed  to  any  reor 
ganization  of  State  governments  in  those  States  which  do  not  recognize  the  imme 
diate  and  final  abolishment  of  slavery  as  a  condition  precedent.  That  this  Con 
vention  express  their  sympathy  with  the  radical  emancipationists  in  Missouri,  and 
in  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  and  Louisiana,  and  regret  that  influences  in  the  cabinet 
have,  in  Maryland  and  those  States,  depressed  the  efforts  of  the  radical  friends  of 
the  administration  and  of  emancipation,  and  given  prominence  to  those  who  are  the 
unwilling  advocates  of  emancipation." 

I  trust  that  that  admonition  will  have  its  weight,  and  that  these 
sinister  influences  will  cease  to  be  the  controlling  element  near 
the  presidential  ear  in  this  grave  crisis  of  emancipation  in  Mary 
land  ;  and  I  desire  that  the  country  shall  understand  that,  being 
under  small  obligations  to  the  President  for  what  has  been  done 
in  Maryland  up  to  this  time,  the  people  of  Maryland  thought  it 
wise,  while  expressing  their  confidence  in  the  President,  to  put 
that  significant  resolution  before  him  for  his  serious  consideration, 
so  as  to  show  that  their  devotion  is  not  personal,  but  to  principle; 
that  their  interest  is  in  the  cause  and  not  in  a  man  ;  and  that 
while  they  will  support  the  man  as  long  as  the  man  supports  the 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  357 

cause,  if  the  cause  fail  by  any  failure  elsewhere,  there  may  be  a 
revision  of  their  judgment  respecting  the  person. 

But  "slavery  is  dead  in  the  rebel  States."  No,  sir.  No,  sir. 
Far  from  it.  If  our  honorable  friends  on  the  other  side  elect 
their  President  in  the  coming  fall,  slavery  is  as  alive  as  it  was 
the  day  that  the  first  gun  blazed  against  Sumter.  If  we  lose  the 
majority  in  the  next  Congress,  slavery  is  as  powerful  as  it  ever 
was.  We  are,  it  is  true,  in  the  condition  in  which  we  can  not 
stand  still.  We  must  go  backward  or  we  must  go  forward.  My 
face,  sir,  is  to  the  future.  I  wish  so  to  look  at  it,  and  so  to  say,  to 
the  men  of  my  day  and  generation,  what  I  think  about  the  great 
measures  which  now  touch  the  salvation  of  the  country,  that, 
whether  I  be  on  the  winning  or  on  the  losing  side,  whether  the 
nation  triumph  or  fail,  whenever  any  body  shall  by  accident  here 
after  rake  about  among  the  ashes  of  the  past  and  find  my  name, 
he  will  find  at  least  that  I  did  not  fear  to  say  to  friend  and  foe 
what  the  times  demand ;  and  it  may  be  that  it  will  be  well  if  it 
were  heeded. 

Slavery  is  not  dead  by  the  proclamation.  What  lawyer  at 
tributes  to  it  the  least  legal  effect  in  breaking  the  bonds  of  the 
slave  ?  Executed  by  the  bayonet,  legally  valid  to  the  extent  of 
the  duration  of  the  war,  under  the  law  of  1862,  which  authorizes 
the  President  to  use  the  people  of  African  descent  as  he  may  see 
fit  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  it  is  undoubtedly  valid  to 
the  extent  of  turning  them  loose  from  their  masters  during  the 
rebellion.  So  long  as  the  military  power  is  engaged  in  suppress 
ing  resistance,  they  are  free  from  their  masters.  Ee-establish  the 
old  governments,  allow  the  dominant  aristocracy  to  repossess  the 
State  power  in  its  original  plenitude, how  long  will  they  be  free? 
What  courts  will  give  them  their  rights?  What  provision  is 
there  to  protect  them  ?  Where  is  the  writ  of  habeas  coitus  ? 
How  are  the  courts  of  the  United  States  to  be  open  to  them  ? 
Who  shall  close  the  courts  of  the  States  against  the  master? 
Does  the  master  resort  to  the  court  against  the  slave?  No;  he 
seizes  him  by  the  neck.  The  law  of  last  Congress  freeing  a  few 
slaves  provides  that  that  act  may  be  pleaded  in  defense.  But 
when  is  the  slave  sued  by  his  master?  When  is  the  time  to  plead 
in  any  such  process?  Gentlemen  legislate  without  a  knowledge 
of  the  country  or  of  the  people  they  are  legislating  for.  Their 
laws  are  on  the  statute-book,  and  the  opinions  of  the  dominant 


358  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

faction  conspire  to  perpetuate  the  master's  rights  and  the  slave's 
wrongs.  Nothing  but  the  resolute  declaration  of  the  United 
States  that  it  shall  be  a  condition  precedent  that  slavery  shall  be 
prohibited  in  their  Constitutions,  and  that  the  United  States  shall 
give  judicial  guarantees  to  the  negroes,  freedom  in  fact,  and  that 
the  United  States  shall  be  kept  under  the  control  of  men  of  such 
political  views  and  purposes  that  the  law  will  be  executed  as  a 
constitutional  law  and  imposed  on  reluctant  people — nothing  else 
can  accomplish  the  death  of  slavery. 

Supposing  that  to  be  done,  Mr.  Speaker,  what  then?  This  bill 
relates  to  the  other  grave  social  problem  of  the  destiny  of  the 
negro  race  when  their  bond  is  broken.  Now,  many  of  them  are 
thrown  on  our  hands.  We  have  to  take  care  of  them.  To  that 
extent  the  bill  is  right,  and  I  shall  vote  for  it  for  that  purpose. 
How  well  it  will  answer,  how  far  it  must  be  modified  after  the 
national  cause  shall  triumph,  remains  to  be  seen.  Let  the  things 
of  the  future  be  cared  for  by  the  future.  But  it  is  necessary  now 
to  determine  our  policy  respecting  the  negroes  when  freed ;  to 
form  some  definite  ideas  as  to  what  shall  be  the  future  of  the  ne 
gro  race ;  in  other  words,  what  dispositions  we  will  make  of  them 
when  we  have  broken  the  master's  yoke,  when  Maryland  shall 
have  broken,  it  hereafter,  when  Missouri  shall  have  finally  broken 
it,  when  West  Virginia  shall  have  finally  broken  it,  and  when 
slavery  in  all  the  rebel  States  shall  have  been  destroyed  and 
broken  up  in  fact. 

There  are  on  that  subject  two,  and  only  two,  theories.  The 
President  says,  "  Colonize  and»pay  for  them."  The  people  say, 
"Leave  them  where  they  are."  In  favor  of  colonization,  and 
compensation  to  all  loyal  persons  in  the  rebel  States,  we  have  the 
declaration  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  which  naturally 
carries  with  it  great  weight.  He  has  formally  proposed  it  for  the 
consideration  of  the  people  as  his  preferred  policy.  It  is  for  that 
reason  that  it  is  the  more  important  to  look  at  it  directly  in  the 
face,  and  to  deal  with  it,  subject  to  the  conditions  which  it  in 
volves,  if  it  be  adopted  as  the  policy  of  the  nation.  It  has  been 
discussed  and  commented  on  by  a  distinguished  gentleman,  a 
member  of  his  cabinet,  supposed,  on  that  and  other  subjects,  more 
accurately  to  represent  his  opinion  than  any  other  person.  (The 
Postmaster  General.)  These  comments  throw  a  flood  of  light  on 
the  views  which  prevail  in  high  quarters  on  the  practical  execu- 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  359 

tion  of  the  scheme  of  colonization,  and  the  industrial  and  social 
reasons  which  prompt  or  justify  it.  These  comments  have,  been 
published  broadcast  over  the  country  as  comments  upon  the 
emancipation  policy  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Those 
comments  have  never  been  disavowed.  They  are  entitled  to  our 
grave  and  respectful  consideration,  both  from  the  high  position 
and  character  of  the  gentleman  from  whom  they  emanate,  and 
his  peculiar  relations  to  the  President,  and  the  concurrence  of 
view  between  him  and  the  President  asserted  and  not  disavowed. 
Those  comments  are  in  the  form  of  an  attack  upon  the  "  radical 
abolitionists;"  but,  while  that  is  the  form,  the  substance  is  a  vin 
dication  of  the  colonization  policy  of  the  President,  a  demonstra 
tion  of  its  necessity  to  the  success  of  the  emancipation  policy  pro 
claimed  by  the  President,  and  the  "  radical  abolitionists"  are  all 
who  differ  from  the  President  and  his  commentator !  I  am  one 
of  them. 

What  are  the  grounds  ?  First  of  all  it  is  said  that  the  "  radical 
abolitionists"  wish  to  change  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  all  of  our  laws,  to  elevate  to  an  equality  this  race,  which  is 
wholly  untrue ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  that  unequal  races  can  not 
live  together  on  terms  of  equality  and  peace,  and  therefore  that  it 
is  necessary  to  prevent  the  massacre  of  the  negro  that  he  should 
be  expatriated.  Mr.  Speaker,  what  is  the  foundation  of  this  view  ? 
The  negro  must  be  colonized  if  he  be  free,  or  a  war  of  races  will 
exterminate  him !  What  justifies  this  alternative?  Will  gentle 
men  tell  me  where  in  the  history  of  the  world  they  find  the  fact 
upon  which  they  base  that  astounding  generalization  ?  Civilized 
people  have  overborne  savages,  men  of  one  religion  have  borne 
down  men  of  a  different  religion,  ambition  has  overturned  one 
nation  by  another,  but  where  in  the  history  of  the  world  is  there 
any  case  of  a  nation  going  to  work  to  exterminate  a  large  portion 
of  its  people  of  another  race  living  in  the  midst  of  it,  of  the  same 
religion,  civilized  in  the  same  manner,  conforming  to  its  laws, 
subject  to  its  will,  willing  to  work  for  its  wages,  not  ambitious, 
and  not  disturbing  the  public  peace,  because  they  are  of  a  differ 
ent  race  ?  Where  is  the  instance  in  the  history  of  the  world  of 
the  subjugation  and  massacre  of  a  different  race  under  these  cir 
cumstances?  In  earlier  times  great  masses  of  people  poured  from 
Central  Asia  over  Europe.  They  were  of  a  different  race  from 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Eoman  empire,  in  any  ethnological  sense  in 


360  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

which  the  word  can  be  used.  I  do  not  know  that  they  enslaved 
the  whole  mass  of  the  people  of  the  Eoman  empire.  My  impres 
sion  is  that  the  conquered  civilized  the  conqueror,  and  that  it  did 
not  end  in  the  social  war  such  as  is  contemplated  here,  but  the 
descendants  of  both  form  now  the  people  of  Europe. 

The  distinguished  commentator  on  the  colonization  views  of 
the  President  refers  to  the  Moors  of  Spain.  In  an  ethnological 
sense  they  were  far  from  kin  in  point  of  race  to  the  Spaniards. 
But  race  was  not  the  ground  of  war  ;  it  was  religion  ;  and  every 
decree  which  undertook  to  expel  them  gave  them  the  alternative 
of  baptism  or  exile.  The  Spaniards  wanted  them  to  stay,  and 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  would  have  been  glad  if  they  had  re 
mained  to  decorate  the  southern  portion  of  their  empire,  the  per 
petual  glory  of  their  missionary  zeal. 

Then  we  are  referred  to  San  Domingo.  That  is  exactly  what 
gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  are  preparing  for  us  in 
the  future.  There  was  no  revolt  of  slaves  against  their  masters, 
there  was  no  war  of  one  race  against  another,  unwilling  to  live  in 
peace  and  industry ;  but  the  French  Assembly,  having  freed  the 
slaves  of  San  Domingo,  undertook  to  reduce  them  to  slavery 
again.  They  revolted  against  the  authority  which  attempted  to 
reduce  them  to  slavery,  and  under  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  whose 
military  genius  Thiers  thinks  it  worth  while  to  commend,  defeated 
both  France  and  England  in  their  attempt  to  reduce  and  hold 
the  island. 

These  are  the  examples  of  wars  of  race !  But  why  do  they  pass 
over  the  peaceful  example  of  emancipation  of  Jamaica  and  the 
French  colonies,  where  the  circumstances  would  be  more  analo 
gous?  Why  do  they  not  invoke  the  great  example  of  Mexico 
and  South  America?  The  Indian  of  those  countries  is  as  far  re 
moved  from  the  Spaniard  as  our  Indians  from  us,  and  as  we  are 
from  the  negro.  The  Spaniard  gained  and  wielded  the  empire 
over  them,  but  neither  is  exterminated ;  the  two  races  are  not 
blended,  neither  is  reduced  to  slavery,  and  in  Mexico  both  unite 
against  the  common  foe.  Eace  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  ques 
tion.  The  Indian  and  Spaniard  live  together  because  both  are 
civilized,  and  both  are  Christian,  and  both  are  interested  in  the 
same  laws,  and  government,  and  industry. 

I  wait  patiently  till  the  gentlemen  adduce  their  historic  facts 
upon  which  to  rest  their  theory  of  the  necessary  contest  of  races 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  361 

to  reply  to  them.  I  have  dealt  only  with  those  they  have  fur 
nished,  i 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Brooks]  ar 
raigned  the  harsh,  hard-hearted  conduct  of  Massachusetts  toward 
the  Indians.  The  war  of  Massachusetts  on  the  Indians  was  that 
of  a  civilized  and  Christian  people  against  a  people  of  different 
religion,  and  which  refused  every  form  of  American  civilization. 
The  same  differences  of  religious  and  social  organization  prevents 
the  toleration  of  a  Mormon  people  in  any  of  our  States  hitherto. 
He  might  have  found  an  example  nearer  at  home.  The  only  ex-. 
ample  upon  the  American  continent  of  a  war  on  the  peace  and 
quiet  of  the  negro  is  the  riots  in  New  York  city  last  summer, 
when  Seymour's  friends,  the  Pahdees,  undertook  to  show  their 
Democratic  mercy  to  the  wretched  negro.  I  agree  that  it  is  pos 
sible  that  such  a  class  of  population  as  that  might  be  tempted  to 
oppress  the  negro,  but  no  class  of  American  population  would 
condescend  to  do  it.  There  was  more  of  Democratic  hostility  to 
the  government  than  Celtic  hostility  to  the  negro.  An  argu 
ment  without  a  fact  is  not  likely  to  carry  conviction ;  but  the  gen 
tleman  from  New  York  did  not  venture  to  use  the  only  one  per 
tinent  to  his  purpose,  which  bad  men  had  prepared  at  his  very 
threshold. 

Then  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  them?  The  President 
and  the  commentator  say,  go  to  kindred  races  and  congenial 
climes.  Where?  To  Texas?  That  is  abandoned.  To  Central 
America,  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  connection  between  the 
great  oceans?  That  was  respectfully  declined.  To  South  Amer 
ica?  I  have  not  heard  that  the  President  has  been  successful 
there  in  finding  a  kindred  race  willing  to  receive  them.  Back  to 
Africa  ?  Won't  you  ask  as  a  matter  of  kindness  to  transplant  the 
Irish  back  to  Ireland,  to  a  kindred  race  and  congenial  bogs? 
Who  inhabit  Mexico  ?  Who  inhabit  Central  America  ?  Who  in 
habit  South  America?  I  take  it  the  Indian  of  this  peninsulars 
farther  removed  from  the  negro  of  the  African  peninsula  than  we 
are  who  come  more  directly  from  the  common  stock  of  Central 
Asia.  Then  to  transplant  them  there  would  be  putting  a  greater 
diversity  of  races  together  to  come  into  collision.  Or  will  they 
love  each  other,  though  alien  in  race,  because  of  their  color  ?  Is 
skin  deep  the  depth  of  their  philosophy  ? 

In  the  imagination  of  the  commentator,  Cuba  is  the  central  em- 


362  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

pirc  of  the  negro ;  and  strange  as  it  appears,  while  one  party  of 
colonizationists  are  talking  of  transplanting  the  negro  to  the  coast 
of  Africa,  the  commentator  on  the  President's  policy  grows  enthu 
siastic  over  the  vision  of  the  negroes  settled  in  the  American  trop 
ics  inviting  their  brethren  from  Africa  to  this  Western  world — a 
new  Canaan  for  that  outcast  and  rescued  race?  What  becomes 
of  the  Spaniard  and  his  rights  ?  What  becomes  of  the  rights  of 
the  white  population  ?  What  becomes  of  the  aristocratic  Span 
iard,  who  has  been  crushing  generation  after  generation  in  Cuba 
to  enhance  his  wealth?  How  is  he  to  receive  the  African  in 
spite  of  the  diversity  of  race  ?  Is  the  Spaniard  nearer  in  blood 
because  Spain  is  nearer  geographically  to  Africa?  The  theory 
of  the  incompatibility  of  different  races  has  no  foundation  in  his 
tory.  The  moment  you  come  to  state  it  in  words,  and  ask  what 
it  means,  all  the  theory,  all  the  philosophy,  and  all  the  facts  break 
down,  and  there  is  the  end  of  it.  Its  very  advocates  discard  it  in 
their  dreams. 

But  we  are  ourselves  interested  a  little  in  this  question  of  ex 
portation  of  the  negro.  The  President  proposes  to  pay  loyal  own 
ers  for  loss  of  slaves  by  the  acts  of  the  United  States.  That  is 
part  of  his  scheme  of  settlement.  But  who  will  submit  to  addi 
tional  millions  of  taxation  for  slaves  freed  by  the  United  States  ? 
Such  a  debt  would  equal  the  war  debt :  it  would  prostrate  the  re 
sources  of  the  country  for  generations :  it  would  inflict  the  scourge 
of  perpetual  debt  on  a  land  destroyed  by  civil  war,  and  made  a 
desert  by  the  deportation  of  its  laboring  population.  The  free 
men  of  the  free  States  will  not  mortgage  the  labor  of  their  sons 
and  daughters  for  such  a  purpose ;  and  the  loyal  men  of  the  South 
must,  and  will,  find  their  indemnity  in  the  increased  value  of  their 
lands,  if  they  are  not  deprived  of  their  labor. 

But  if  the  schemes  of  colonization  be  persisted  in,  who  will  pay 
the  cost?  Who  will  pay  for  the  transportation?  Who  will  sup 
ply  the  depleted  labor  of  the  country  ?  Who  is  going  to  pay  the 
increased  price  of  bread  to  the  poor  mechanic  ?  Who  is  going  to 
pay  the  increased  price  of  cotton?  Who  is  going  to  fill  up  the 
enormous  vacuum  of  labor  swept  away  by  this  insane  and  un 
christian  philanthropy?  What  is  the  negro  to  do  in  the  mean 
time?  You  can  not  take  them  away  to-morrow  or  in  a  genera 
tion.  The  schemers  propose  to  build  canals  and  fortifications, 
connect  the  Mississippi  with  the  lakes—for  a  generation  !  Under 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  363 

whose  supervision,  at  whose  expense,  by  what  new  forms  of  so 
cialism  will  you  sweep  a  whole  region  of  country  of  three  or  four 
million  people,  and  concentrate  them  upon  the  banks  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  to  eat  bread  and  dig  ditches,  while  the  cotton-fields  are 
unplanted,  and  men  and  women  starving?  When  you  undertake 
to  colonize  the  negro,  you  will  meet  the  master,  who  says,  "Do 
not  leave  me  to  starvation."  The  master  will  offer  the  negro  more 
to  stay  than  the  government  will  offer  him  to  go.  Two  genera 
tions  can  not  fill  up  his  place ;  and  if  we  can  stand  his  presence 
two  generations,  perhaps  Christian  philosophy  will  enable  our  de 
scendants  to  reconcile  themselves  to  the  permanence  of  what  has 
been  found  tolerable  so  long. 

Why  should  they  consent  to  go  to  barbarous  countries  ?  Why 
should  they  love  the  people  of  Asharitee  ?  Would  the  King  of 
Dahomey  protect  them  from  the  cannibals  of  Africa?  They  pre 
fer  to  stay  where  they  are.  You  can  not  offer  them  as  good 
homes ;  you  can  not  offer  them  as  good  wages ;  you  can  not  give 
them  as  good  treatment ;  you  can  not  give  them  as  go6d  churches, 
nor  as  good  houses,  and  food,  and  clothing  for  their  children. 
Why  should  they  consent  to  go  ? 

Now  deal  with  the  problem  under  the  conditions  which  exist. 
The  folly  of  our  ancestors  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Almighty,  in  its 
inscrutable  purposes,  having  allowed  them  to  come  here  and  plant 
ed  them  here,  they  have  a  right  to  remain  here,  and  they  will  re 
main  here  to  the  latest  syllable  of  recorded  time.  And  whether 
they  become  our  equals  or  our  superiors,  whether  they  blend  or 
remain  a  distinct  people,  your  posterity  will  know,  for  their  eyes 
will  behold  them  as  ours  do  now.  These  are  things  which  we  can 
not  control.  Laws  do  not  make,  laws  can  not  unmake  them.  If 
God  has  made  them  our  equals,  then  they  will  work  out  the  prob 
lem  which  he  has  sent  them  to  work  out ;  and  if  God  has  stamped 
upon  them  an  ineradicable  inferiority,  you  can  not  make  one  hair 
white  or  black,  or  add  a  cubit  to  their  stature.  Let  us  leave  such 
questions  for  gentlemen  of  the  school  of  Wendell  Phillips  to  talk 
of;  but  I  earnestly  pray  gentlemen  in  high  positions,  in  view  of 
the  excited  and  feverish  state  of  the  public  mind,  in  dealing  with 
this  delicate  topic  of  the  welfare  of  millions  of  whites  and  blacks, 
not  to  add  to  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  problem  prejudices 
drawn  from  fancies,  not  facts,  which  we  may  never  be  called  upon 
to  deal  with,  and  which  can  only  exasperate  the  very  feeling  which 


364  FBEEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

we  ought  to  allay,  and  instigate  the  very  collision  we  all  dep 
recate. 

Sir,  I  am  a  Mary  lander,  not  a  "  Northern  fanatic."  My  father 
was  a  slaveholder.  I  was  myself  for  years  a  slaveholder.  I  have 
lived  nearly  all  my  life  in  Maryland.  I  know  the  temper  of  her 
people.  I  have  lived  for  years  in  Virginia.  I  know  the  temper 
of  her  people ;  I  know  the  relations  of  the  white  and  black  popu 
lation  in  those  States,  and  I  am  going  to  state  some  facts  to  the 
House  nearer  home  than  those  cited  by  the  dreamers. 

In  Maryland  we  have  more  free  negroes  than  any  other  State 
in  thetUnion.  Virginia  stands  next.  She  has  some  fifty  thou 
sand  among  five  hundred  thousand  slaves,  and  we  have  eighty- 
three  thousand  among  eighty-seven  thousand  slaves.  One  eighth 
of  our  population  is  free  negro.  In  1859,  just  before  the  rebel 
lion,  there  was  what  was  called  in  Maryland  a  "Slaveholders' 
Convention" — a  phenomenon  under  the  sun — fit  precursor  of  the 
slave  confederacy !  Nobody  could  be  admitted  who  did  not  own 
slaves ;  and  their  purpose  was,  as  their  resolutions  indicated  when 
introduced,  to  put  an  end  to  free  negroism  in  Maryland  for  the 
advantage  of  the  white  population.  There  was  one  man  in  that 
assembly  who  was  not  crazy,  and  that  man  was  an  old  Whig 
whom  I  honored,  and  whom  my  friend  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Mai- 
lory]  knew  and  honored.  His  name  was  James  Alfred  Pearce, 
alwaj^s  a  statesman,  always  a  gentleman,  however  wandering  into 
errors  in  his  last  days.  He  was  placed  upjti  the  committee  to 
which  this  subject  was  referred,  and  being  a  gentleman  and  a 
large  slaveholder,  and  knowing  something  about  political  econo 
my,  and  the  effect  of  tampering  with  the  laws  of  industry,  he  em 
bodied  his  sane  views  in  a  report  to  that  Convention,  a  part  of 
which  I  will  read  for  the  benefit  of  the  House : 

"  The  existence  of  so  large  a  number  of  free  blacks  in  the  midst  of  a  slaveholding 
State  is  believed  to  be  of  itself  an  evil,  and  this  evil  is  readily  perceived  to  be  greater 
when  it  is  considered  that  a  portion  of  them  are  idle,  vicious,  and  unproductive. 
This,  however,  is  not  the  case  with  the  majority  of  them,  and  their  removal  would, 
as  the  committee  believe,  be  far  greater  than  all  the  evils  the  people  of  Maryland 
ever  suffered  from  them.  In  the  city  of  Baltimore  it  is  estimated  that  there  arc 
more  than  twenty-five  thousand  of  them,  employed  chiefly  as  domestic  servants  or 
laborers  in  various  departments  of  industry.  In  many  of  the  rural  districts  of  the 
State,  where  labor  is  by  no  means  abundant,  they  furnish  a  large  supply  of  agricul 
tural  labor,  and  it  is  unquestionable  that  quite  a  large  portion  of  our  soil  could  not 
be  tilled  without  their  aid." 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  365 

How  much  of  South  Carolina  or  Mississippi  could  be  tilled 
without  their  aid  ? 

"In  some  districts  they  supply  almost  all  the  labor  demanded  by  the  farmers. 
Their  removal  from  the  State  would  deduct  .nearly  fifty  per  cent,  from  the  house 
hold  and  agricultural  labor  furnished  by  people  of  this  color,  and  indispensable  to 
the  people  of  the  State;  would  produce  great  discomfort  and  inconvenience  to  the 
great  body  of  householders ;  would  break  up  the  business  and  destroy  the  property 
of  large  numbers  of  landowners  and  landrenters — a  class  whose  interests  are  enti 
tled  to  as  much  consideration  as  those  of  any  other  portion  of  our  citizens ;  would 
be  harsh  and  oppressive  to  those  people  themselves ;  would  violate  public  senti 
ment,  which  is  generally  not  only  just,  but  kindly,  and  would  probably  lead  to  other 
evils  which  the  committee  forbear  to  mention.  We  are  satisfied  that  such  a  meas 
ure  could  not  receive  the  legislative  sanction,  and  would  not  be  tolerated  by  the 
great  body  of  the  people  of  Maryland,  even  with  that  sanction." 

That  is  from  James  Alfred  Pearce,  a  slaveholder.  Even  the 
secession  Legislature  of  Maryland,  then  about  to  meet,  had  it 
passed  that  law,  James  A.  Pearce  tells  them  the  people  of  Mary 
land  would  not  tolerate  them  in  doing  it.  I  beg  you,  gentlemen, 
observe  the  strength  of  the  language  : 

"The  committee,  therefore,  can  not  recommend  their  expulsion  from  the  State. 
Still  more  unwilling  should  they  be  to  favor  any  measure  which  looked  to  their  be 
ing  deprived  of  the  right  to  freedom  which  they  have  acquired  by  the  indulgence 
of  our  laws  and  the  tenderness  of  their  masters,  whether  wise  or  unwise,  or  which 
they  have  inherited  as  a  birthright." 

Then,  sir,  in  Maryland  a  free  negro  has  some  rights. 

The  policy  of  the  report  prevailed  in  this  Convention  of  slave 
holders,  and  the  iniquitous  purpose  was  not  by  them  pressed  on 
the  Legislature. 

Some  of  the  people  in  that  Convention  were  in  the  Legislature, 
and  a  Mr.  Jacobs  was  one  of  them.  He  introduced  a  law  to  hire 
the  free  negroes  out  to  the  highest  bidders ;  and  if  they  should  be 
disobedient  after  being  hired  out,  then  they  were  to  be  sold  as 
slaves  for  life.  The  bill  could  not  be  passed.  It  was  objected  to 
by  county  after  county.  It  was  only  allowed  to  become  a  law 
with  reference  to  four  or  five  counties — St.  Mary's,  Charles,  Som 
erset,  Worcester,  Baltimore  County,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  oth 
ers  ;  and  it  was  not  allowed  to  be  operative  till  approved  by  the 
people  of  the  counties  respectively.  The  friends  of  the  infamous 
scheme  went  before  the  people  at  the  presidential  election  in  those 
counties ;  for  the  Legislature  would  not  allow  the  law  even  to  ap 
ply  to  those  counties  unless  a  majority  of  the  people  willed  it.  In 


366  FKEEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

Howard,  one  of  the  slaveholding  counties,  they  got  just  55  votes 
for  it,  and  against  it  1397.  In  Baltimore  County  they  got  681 
votes  for,  and  5364  against  it.  In  Kent  County  they  got  74  votes 
for,  and  1502  votes  against  it.  It  passed  in  no  county  except  in 
one,  and  there  by  an  accident.  That  is  the  judgment  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland  on  the  relations  of  the  laboring  free  colored  peo 
ple  living  among  them,  essential  to  their  industry,  a  part  of  their 
social  system,  filling  well  their  place  in  life,  without  whom  their 
interests  can  not  be  protected,  and  which  we  neither  will  expel 
ourselves,  nor  encourage  to  go,  nor  allow  other  people  to  expel. 

If  gentlemen  want  to  know  still  farther  how  Maryland  regards 
the  free  negro  population-,  I  desire  to  say  that  the  emancipation 
movement  of  Maryland  is  indebted  very  much  to  the  commence 
ment  of  negro  enlistments  in  Maryland  for  the  same  economic 
reason.  Colonel  Birney  was  sent  there  with  general  orders  to 
enlist  negroes.  He  was  not  instructed  to  take  slaves.  He  com 
menced  the  enlistment  of  free  negroes.  Gentlemen  found  at  once 
that  that  was  a  discrimination  between  the  loyal  people  who  do 
not  own  slaves  and  the  disloyal  people  who  do  own  slaves ;  and 
my  friend  Judge  Bond  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  remonstrat 
ing  against  the  inequality  of  taking  from  the  Union  men  their 
labor,  and  leaving  with  the  secessionist  his  labor.  He  pointed 
out  the  law  of  1862,  authorizing  the  enlisting  of  one  as  well  as  of 
the  other.  The  Secretary  of  War  agreed  with  him.  Birney 
acted  under  the  implied,  if  not  the  express  authority  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  and  commenced  to  levy  from  the  slave  population, 
in  order  that  the  Union  men  might  have  the  free  colored  popula 
tion  to  hire.  So  the  beginning  *of  slave  enlistments  was  a  ques 
tion  of  political  economy  which  the  President  and  his  commenta 
tor  propose  to  solve  in  one  way,  but  which  the  people  of  Mary 
land  mean  to  solve  in  another  way. 

But  it  was  also  apparent  that  every  slave  enlisted  was  a  poor 
white  man's  substitute.  It  was  that,  more  than  any  thing  else, 
that  brought  directly  before  the  people  of  Maryland  at  the  last 
election  the  burdens  they  were  suffering  from  the  existence  of 
slavery,  and  that  aided  more  than  did  the  bayonets  to  which  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  refers,  more  than  all  proclamations, 
more  than  any  other  argument  urged,  in  bringing  on  our  side  the 
people  of  the  slaveholding  counties  of  Maryland,  who  had  voted 
at  the  beck  of  the  slaveholders  for  generations.  They  said,  "If 
we  are  to  have  a  draft,  and  if  our  rich  neighbor's  plantation  is  to 


DISPOSITION  TO  BE  MADE  OF  FREE  NEGROES.  367 

be  cultivated  while  we  are  dragged  off  to  fill  tlie  quota  of  the 
State,  we  think  that  an  injustice.  We  are  for  slave  enlistments, 
and  in  favor  of  relieving  the  white  people  from  the  disproportion 
ate  burdens  of  the  draft."  It  was  that,  sir,  and  no  proclamation ; 
it  was  that  view,  carried  home  by  my  honorable  friend  who  repre 
sents  the  First  Congressional  District  [Mr.  Creswell],  urged  upon 
every  husting,  in  every  fence  corner,  that  dragged  out  men  in 
homespun  to  cast  their  first  independent  vote,  and  my  honora 
ble  friend  from  the  first  district  is  the  representative  of  that  inde 
pendent  vote. 

Such  was  the  telling  power  of  the  enlistment  of  slaves  that  my 
colleague  got  in  the  county  of  Worcester,  one  of  the  great  slave- 
holding  counties,  several  hundred  more  votes  than  his  predecessor, 
Mr.  Crisfield,  a  most  able  gentleman,  got  when  he  was  candidate 
of  the  united  Union  part}r. 

If  we  are  to  be  treated,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  speculations  on  equality, 
and  prejudices  of  race,  and  matters  of  that  kind,  to  bewilder  and 
mislead  the  public  judgment  upon  this  grave  and  important  topic, 
allow  me  to  beseech  gentlemen  to  recollect  that  we  people  in 
America  are  not  the  only  ones  who  have  prejudices,  and  that  ne 
groes  are  not  the  only  proscribed  race  in  the  world ;  that  other 
nations  have  been  as  unjust  and  as  inclined  to  oppress,  and  that 
we,  in  some  regions  of  the  world,  would  fare  no  better  than  ne 
groes  do  here.  How  long  has  it  been  since  "  dog  of  a  Christian" 
was  the  most  polite  word  to  us  in  the  Moslem's  mouth?  How 
long  has  it  been  since  a  Brahmin  would  condescend  to  sit  at  table 
with  the  most  aristocratic  Englishman  ?  How  long  has  it  been 
since  the  nobles  of  Europe  refused  to  mingle  their  blood  with  the 
blood  of  the  villain,  or  the  peasant  of  Continental  Europe  ?  Have 
we  forgot  the  first  example— that  the  Hebrew  was  an  abomination 
to  the  Egyptian- African  ? 

These  are  arguments  to  prejudice,  and  not  to  the  merits.  They 
are  intended  to  mislead,  not  to  enlighten.  I  beg  gentlemen  on 
the  other  side,  whatever  their  views  or  purposes  may  be,  let  us 
combine,  whatever  the  result,  that  the  least  damage  may  be  done 
to  the  public  service.  Let  us  decide  the  question,  not  upon  sug 
gestions  of  prejudice,  not  on  questions  of  hostility  to  race,  but  on 
the  great  politico-economic  argument,  if  I  may  use  the  expression. 
Those  forces  which  must  determine  it  will  determine  it  peacefully 
if  we  are  wise,  or  in  blood  if  we  are  unwise.  Those,  and  those 
alone,  in  my  judgment,  are  the  alternatives. 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBEL 
LIOUS  STATES. 

Ox  the  22d  of  March,  1864,  the  House  refused  to  recommit  the  Bill 
for  the  Government  of  the  Rebellious  States  reported  from  the  Select 
Committee,  and  the  question  being  upon  ordering  the  bill  to  be  engrossed 
and  read  a  third  time,  Mr.  Davis,  as  Chairman  of  the  Select  Committee, 
addressed  the  House  as  follows : 

MR.  SPEAKER, — The  bill  which  I  am  directed  by  the  Commit 
tee  on  the  Eebellious  States  to  report  is  one  which  provides  for 
the  restoration  of  civil  government  in  States  whose  governments 
have  been  overthrown.  It  prescribes  such  conditions  as  will  se 
cure  not  merely  civil  government  to  the  people  of  the  rebellious 
States,  but  will  also  secure  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  per 
manent  peace  after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

The  bill  challenges  the  support  of  all  who  consider  slavery  the 
cause  of  the  rebellion,  and  that  in  it  the  embers  of  rebellion  will 
always  smoulder;  of  those  who  think  that  freedom  and  perma 
nent  peace  are  inseparable,  and  who  are  determined,  so  far  as  their 
constitutional  authority  will  allow  them,  to  secure  these  fruits  by 
adequate  legislation. 

The  vote  of  gentlemen  upon  this  measure  will  be  regarded  by 
the  country  with  no  ordinary  interest.  Their  vote  will  be  taken 
to  express  their  opinion  on  the  necessity  of  ending  slavery  with 
the  rebellion,  and  their  willingness  to  assume  the  responsibility  of 
adopting  the  legislative  measures  without  which  that  result  can 
not  be  assured,  and  may  wholly  fail  of  accomplishment.  Their 
vote  will  be  held  to  show  whether  they  think  the  measure  now 
proposed,  or  any  which  may  be  moved  as  a  substitute,  is  an  ade 
quate  and  proper  measure  to  accomplish  that  purpose.  It  is  en 
titled  to  the  support  of  all  gentlemen  upon  this  side  of -the  House, 
whatever  their  views  may  be  of  the  nature  of  the  rebellion ;  and 
the  relation  in  which  it  has  placed  the  people  and  States  in  rebel 
lion  toward  the  United  States,  not  less  of  those  who  think  that 
the  rebellion  has  placed  the  citizens  of  the  rebel  States  beyond  the 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     369 

protection  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  Congress,  therefore,  has 
supreme  power  over  them  as  conquered  enemies,  than  of  that 
other  class  who  think  that  they  have  not  ceased  to  be  citizens  and 
States  of  the  United  States,  though  incapable  of  exercising  politi 
cal  privileges  under  the  Constitution,  but  that  Congress  is  charged 
with  a  high  political  power  by  the  Constitution  to  guarantee  re 
publican  governments  in  the  States,  and  that  this  is  the  proper 
time  and  the  proper  mode  of  exercising  it.  It  is  also  entitled  to 
the  favorable  consideration  of  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of 
the  House,  who  honestly  and  deliberately  express  their  judgment 
that  slavery  is  dead.  To  them  it  puts  the  question  whether  it  is 
not  advisable  to  bury  it  out  of  our  sight,  that  its  ghost  may  no 
longer  stalk  abroad  to  frighten  us  from  our  propriety. 

It  does  not  address  itself  to  that  class  of  gentlemen  upon  the 
other  side  of  the  House,  if  there  be  any,  nor  to  that  class  of  the 
people  of  the  country  who  look  for  political  alliance  to  the  men 
who  head  the  rebellion  in  the  South,  and  say  to  them,  let  us 

"  Once  more 

Erect  the  standard  there  of  ancient  knight, 
Yours  be  the  advantage  all,  mine  the  revenge." 

It  purports,  sir,  not  to  exercise  a  revolutionary  authorit}^  but  to 
be  an  execution  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
fourth  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  that  Constitution,  which  not 
merely  confers  the  power  upon  Congress,  but  imposes  upon  Con 
gress  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  re 
publican  form  of  government.  That  clause  vests  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  a  plenary,  supreme,  unlimited  political  juris 
diction,  paramount  over  courts,  subject  only  to  the  judgment  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  embracing  within  its  scope  every 
legislative  measure  necessary  and  proper  to  make  it  effectual ;  and 
what  is  necessary  and  proper  the  Constitution  refers,  in  the  first 
place,  to  our  judgment,  subject  to  no  revision  but  that  of  the  peo 
ple.  It  recognizes  no  other  tribunal.  It  recognizes  the  judgment 
of  no  court.  It  refers  to  no  authority  except  the  judgment  and 
will  of  the  majority  of  Congress,  and  of  the  people  on  that  judg 
ment,  if  any  appeal  from  it.  It  is  one  of  that  class  of  plenary 
powers  of  a  political  character  conferred  on  Congress  by  the  Con 
stitution,  such  as  the  authority  to  admit  new  States  into  the  Union, 
the  authority  to  make  rules  and  regulations  for  the  government 
of  the  Territories  of  the  United  States.  With  reference  to  that 

A  A 


370    REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

class  of  cases,  the  Supreme  Court,  renouncing  all  right  to  judge  on 
political  questions,  has  said  that  these  sections  vested  in  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  plenary  power  over  the  subject-matters 
mentioned,  subject  only  to  the  limitations  contained  in  those  sec 
tions.  In  the  section  to  which  I  refer  there  is,  and  almost  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  there  can  be,  no  limitation.  It  is  in 
tended  to  meet  all  the  emergencies  of  the  national  life.  It  is  in 
tended  to  apply  to  events  which  human  imagination  could  scarcely 
have  pictured.  And  yet  the  great  wisdom  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  has  in  no  particular  been  rendered  more  remarkably 
apparent — although  their  imagination  could  scarcely  have  reached 
the  belief  in  the  possibility  of  events  that  are  to  us  familiar  as 
household  words — than  in  their  having  laid  by,  in  the  arsenal  of 
the  Constitution,  the  weapons  to  deal  with  this  great  danger. 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  case  with  which  we  have  to  deal — 
the  evil  we  must  remedy,  the  danger  we  must  avert?  In  other 
words,  what  is  that  monster  of  political  wrong  which  is  called  se 
cession?  It  is  not,  Mr.  Speaker,  domestic  violence  within  the 
meaning  of  that  clause  of  the  Constitution,  for  the  violence  was 
the  act  of  the  people  of  the  States  through  their  government,  and 
was  the  offspring  of  their  free  and  unforced  will.  It  is  not  inva 
sion  in  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  for  no  State  has  been  in 
vaded  against  the  will  of  the  government  of  the  State  by  any  pow 
er  except  the  United  States  marching  to  overthrow  the  usurpers 
of  its  territory.  It  is,  therefore,  the  act  of  the  people  of  the  States, 
carrying  with  it  all  the  consequences  of  such  an  act.  And  there 
fore  it  must  be  either  a  legal  revolution  which  makes  them  inde 
pendent,  and  makes  of  the  United  States  a  foreign  country,  or  it 
is  a  usurpation  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  the  erec 
tion  of  governments  which  do  not  recognize  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  which  the  Constitution  does  not  recognize,  and, 
therefore,  not  republican  governments  of  the  States  in  rebellion. 
The  latter  is  the  view  which  all  parties  take  of  it.  I  do  not  un 
derstand  that  any  gentleman  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  says 
that  any  rebel  government  which  does  not  recognize  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States,  and  which  is  not  recognized  by  Con 
gress,  is  a  State  government  within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  Still  less  can  it  be  said  that  there  is  a  State  government, 
republican  or  unrepublican,  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  where  there 
is  no  government  of  any  kind,  no  civil  authority,  no  organized 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     371 

form  of  administration  except  that  represented  by  the  flag  of  the 
United  States,  obeying  the  will,  and  under  the  orders  of  the  mili 
tary  officer  in  command.  It  is  the  language  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  in  every  proclamation,  of  Congress  in  every  law 
on  the  statute-book,  of  both  houses  in  their  forms  of  proceedings, 
and  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States  in  their  administration  of 
the  law.  It  is  the  result  of  every  principle  of  law,  of  every  sug 
gestion  of  political  philosophy,  that  there  can  be  no  republican 
government  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  that  does  not 
recognize,  but  does  repudiate,  the  Constitution,  and  which  the 
President  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  do  not,  on  their 
part,  recognize.  Those  that  are  here  represented  are  the  only 
governments  existing  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 
Those  that  are  not  here  represented  are  not  governments  of  the 
States,  republican  under  the  Constitution.  And  if  they  be  not, 
then  they  are  military  usurpations,  inaugurated  as  the  permanent 
governments  of  the  States,  contrary  to  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  arrayed  in  arms  against  the  government  of  the  United  States; 
and  it  is  the  duty,  the  first  and  highest  duty,  of  the  government  to 
suppress  and  expel  them.  Congress  must  either  expel,  or  recog 
nize  and  support  them.  If  it  do  not  guarantee  them,  it  is  bound 
to  expel  them ;  and  they  who  are  not  ready  to  suppress  them  are 
bound  to  recognize  them. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  declining  jurisdic 
tion  of  political  questions  such  as  these  in  the  famous  Ehode  Isl 
and  cases,  declared  by  the  mouth  of  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the 
presidency  of  John  Tyler,  during  the  Southern  domination,  in 
support  of  the  acts  of  John  Tyler,  that  a  military  government,  es 
tablished  as  the  permanent  government  of  a  State,  is  not  a  repub 
lican  government  in  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  suppress  it.  That  duty  Congress  is  now 
executing  by  its  armies.  He  farther  said  in  that  case  that  it  is 
the  exclusive  prerogative  of  Congress — of  Congress,  and  not  of 
the  President — to  determine  what  is  and  what  is  not  the  estab 
lished  government  of  the  State ;  and,  to  come  to  that  conclusion, 
it  must  judge  of  what  is  and  what  is  not  a  republican  govern 
ment,  and  its  judgment  is  conclusive  on  the  Supreme  Court,  which 
can  not  judge  of  the  fact  for  itself,  but  accepts  the  fact  declared 
by  the  political  department  of  the  government. 

We  are  now  engaged  in  suppressing  a  military  usurpation  of 


372    REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

the  authority  of  the  State  government.  When  that  shall  have 
been  accomplished,  there  will  be  no  form  of  State  authority  in 
existence  which  Congress  can  recognize.  Our  success  will  be  the 
overthrow  of  all  semblance  of  government  in  the  rebel  States. 
The  government  of  the  United  States  is  then,  in  fact,  the  only  gov 
ernment  existing  in  those  States,  and  it  is  there  charged  to  guar 
antee  them  republican  governments. 

What  jurisdiction  does  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  a  republican 
government  confer,  under  such  circumstances,  upon  Congress? 
What  right  does  it  give  ?  What  laws  may  it  pass  ?  What  ob 
jects  may  it  accomplish?  What  conditions  may  it  insist  upon, 
and  what  judgment  may  it  exercise  in  determining  what  it  will 
do  ?  The  duty  of  guaranteeing  carries  with  it  the  right  to  pass 
all  laws  necessary  and  proper  to  guarantee.  The  duty  of  guar 
anteeing  means  the  duty  to  accomplish  the  result.  It  means  that 
the  republican  government  shall  exist.  It  means  that  every  op 
position  to  republican  government  shall  be  put  down.  It  means 
that  every  thing  inconsistent  with,  the  permanent  continuance  of 
republican  government  shall  be  weeded  out.  It  places  in  the 
hands  of  Congress  the  right  to  say  what  is  and  what  is  not,  with 
all  the  light  of  experience  and  all  the  lessons  of  the  past,  incon 
sistent,  in  its  judgment,  with  the  permanent  continuance  of  repub 
lican  government;  and  if,  in  its  judgment,  any  form  of  policy  is 
radically  and  inherently  inconsistent  with  the  permanent  and  en 
during  peace  of  the  country,  with  the  permanent  supremacy  of 
republican  government,  and  it  have  the  manliness  to  say  so,  there 
is  no  power,  judicial  or  executive,  in  the  United  States,  that  can 
even  question  this  judgment  but  the  PEOPLE  ;  and  they  can  do  it 
only  by  sending  other  representatives  here  to  undo  our  work. 
The  very  language  of  the  Constitution  and  the  necessary  logic  of 
the  case  involves  that  consequence.  The  denial  of  the  right  of 
secession  means  that  all  the  territory  of  the  United  States  shall 
remain  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Constitution.  If  there  can 
be  no  State  government  which  does  not  recognize  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  which  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  do  not  recog 
nize,  then  there  are  these  alternatives,  and  these  only :  The  rebel 
States  must  be  governed  by  Congress  till  they  submit  and  form  a 
State  government  under  the  Constitution ;  or  Congress  must  rec 
ognize  State  governments  which  do  not  recognize  either  Congress 
or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  or  there  must  be  an  en- 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     373 

tire  absence  of  all  government  in  the  rebel  States  ;  and  that  is  an 
archy.  To  recognize  a  government  which  does  not  recognize  the 
Constitution  is  absurd,  for  a  government  is  not  a  Constitution ; 
and  the  recognition  of  a  State  government  means  the  acknowl 
edgment  of  men  as  governors,  and  legislators,  and  judges,  actually 
invested  with  power  to  make  laws,  to  judge  of  crimes,  to  convict 
the  citizens  of  other  States,  to  demand  the  surrender  of  fugitives 
from  justice,  to  arm  and  command  the  militia,  to  require  the 
United  States  to  repress  all  opposition  to  its  authority,  and  to  pro 
tect  it  from  invasion — against  our  own  armies ;  whose  senators 
and  representatives  are  entitled  to  seats  in  Congress,  and  whose 
electoral  votes  must  be  counted  in  the  election  of  the  President 
of  a  government  which  they  disown  and  defy ! !  To  accept  the 
alternative  of  anarchy  as  the  constitutional  condition  of  a  State  is 
to  assert  the  failure  of  the  Constitution  and  the  end  of  republican 
government.  Until,  therefore,  Congress  recognize  a  State  govern 
ment,  organized  under  its  auspices,  there  is  no  government  in  the 
rebel  States  except  the  authority  of  Congress.  In  the  absence  of 
all  State  government,  the  duty  is  imposed  on  Congress  to  provide 
by  law  to  keep  the  peace,  to  administer  justice,  to  watch  over  the 
transmission  of  decedents'  estates,  to  sanction  marriages — in  a 
word,  to  administer  civil  government  until  the  people  shall,  under 
its  guidance,  submit  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and, 
under  the  laws  which  it  shall  impose,  and  on  the  conditions  Con 
gress  may  require,  reorganize  a  republican  government  for  them 
selves,  and  Congress  shall  recognize  that  government. 

These,  therefore,  are  the  things  which  are  involved  in  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  guarantee  a  republican  government  to  the  States. 
But  we  have  not  yet  suppressed  the  insurrection.  We  are  still 
engaged  in  removing  armed  rebellion.  Is  it  yet  time  to  reor 
ganize  the  State  governments  ?  or  is  there  not  an  intermediate 
period  in  which  sound  legislative  wisdom  requires  that  the  au 
thority  of  Congress  shall  take  possession  of  and  temporarily  con 
trol  the  States  now  in  rebellion  until  peace  shall  be  restored  and 
republican  government  can  be  established  deliberately,  undis 
turbed  by  the  sound  or  fear  of  arms,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
law? 

What  is  the  condition  of  the  rebellion  at  this  time  ?  I  do  not 
know  that  I  express  the  opinions  of  gentlemen  in  this  House,  but, 
in  my  judgment, 


374    REPUBLICAN  GOVEKNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

"Doubtful  it  stands 

As  two  spent  swimmers,  that  do  cling  together, 
And  choke  their  act." 

Our  arms  have  advanced  deep  into  the  regions  of  the  rebellion ; 
we  have  occupied  a  vast  area  wrested  from  its  power,  but  to  this 
day  we  have  not  expelled  the  rebels  from  any  State  they  ever 
held. 

There  is  no  State  some  portion  of  whose  territory  is  not  press 
ed  by  rebels  in  arms  whom  we  have  not  expelled,  or  whom  we  can 
not  expel.  There  is  no  portion  of  the  rebel  States  where  peace 
has  been  so  far  restored  that  our  military  power  can  be  with 
drawn  for  a  moment  without  instant  insurrection.  There  is  no 
rebel  State  held  now  by  the  United  States  enough  of  whose  pop 
ulation  adheres  to  the  Union  to  be  intrusted  with  the  government 
of  the  State.  One  tenth  can  not  control  nine  tenths.  Five  tenths 
are  nowhere  willing  to  undertake  the  control  of  the  other  five 
tenths.  Nowhere  does  such  a  proportion  exist  willing  to  do  so, 
or,  if  willing  to  do  so,  who  can  safely  be  trusted  with  the  great 
powers  of  a  State  government,  carrying  with  it  the  right  of  taxa 
tion,  the  existence  of  courts,  the  appointment  of  officers,  the  com 
mand  of  the  militia,  and,  besides  the  supremacy  of  the  internal 
concerns  of  the  State,  the  right  to  participate  in  the  government 
of  the  United  States  by  representatives,  senators,  and  electors  ap 
pointed  by  their  uncontrolled  dictation.  In  West  Virginia  that 
authority  exists  and  has  been  recognized.  In  no  other  State — 
the  only  one  in  respect  to  which  a  doubt  can  exist  is  Tennessee — 
in  no  other  State  is  there  such  a  portion  of  territory  held,  or  any 
such  portion  of  population  under  our  control,  or  any  such  portion 
of  it  which  is  in  our  control  inspired  by  such  sentiments  toward 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  so  free  from  fear  of  the  re 
turning  wave  of  rebel  invasion,  so  assured  of  the  continued  su 
premacy  of  the  United  States,  that  we  ought  to  be  willing  to  intrust 
them  with  this  power.  You  can  get  a  handful  of  men  in  the  sev 
eral  States  who  would  be  glad  to  take  the  offices  if  protected  by 
the  troops  of  the  United  States,  but  you  have  nowhere  a  body  of 
independent,  loyal  partisans  of  the  United  States,  ready  to  meet 
the  rebels  in  arms,  ready  to  die  for  the  republic,  who  claim  the 
Constitution  as  their  birthright,  count  all  other  privileges  light  in 
comparison,  and  resolved  at  every  hazard  to  maintain  it. 

The  loyal  masses  of  the  South,  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  what 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     375 

was  their  temper  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  ?  what  is  their 
temper  now  ?  They  did  not  want  rebellion ;  they  voted  against 
secession ;  they  acquiesced  in  the  vote  which  decreed  it ;  they  went 
with  their  'State ;  they  were  content  to  accept  whai  they  did  not 
prefer,  but  were  unwilling  to  resist;  they  preferred  Union  with 
peace,  but  when  Union  and  peace  could  not  exist  together,  they 
yielded  up  the  Union  rather  than  make  war  to  maintain  it ;  and 
when  the  question  was  Union  and  war  for  it  or  disunion  and  war 
for  it,  they  preferred  war  against  the  United  States  to  war  against 
the  South.  Whether  it  was  that  the  doctrines  of  secession  had 
ground  themselves  into  the  minds  of  men  and  become  uncon 
sciously  the  foundations  upon  which  their  thoughts  rested ;  or 
that  they  thought  the  interests  of  slavery  must  necessarily  be  sac 
rificed  in  the  event  of  a  war,  and  they  were  not  willing  to  sacrifice 
it;  or  that  the  long  strife  on  the  Negro  Question  had  deadened 
their  national  feeling ;  or  that  they  had  ceased  to  regard  the  peo 
ple  of  the  free  States  as  fellow-citizens,  and  the  horror  of  joining 
them  against  their  Southern  brethren  oppressed  them  like  a  night 
mare  ;  or  the  fear  of  making  war  at  their  own  doors,  and  the  draw 
ing  of  the  sword  against  their  own  friends  and  neighbors,  or  a 
conviction  that  the  United  States  was  no  longer  a  power,  but  a 
mere  semblance  of  authority — a  Eoi  faineant,  whose  Mayors  of 
the  Palace  were  merely  clothing  the  reality  of  power  long'  wield 
ed  with  the  forms  of  sovereignty — whether  each  or  all  of  these 
were  the  motive,  the  fact  is  that  after  they  voted  against  secession, 
they  acquiesced  in  the  judgment  of  their  friends  and  fellow-citi 
zens.  It  is  the  most  astounding  spectacle  in  history  that  in  the 
Southern  States,  with  more  than  half  of  the  population  opposed 
to  it,  a  great  revolution  was  effected  against  their  wishes  and 
against  their  votes,  without  a  battle,  a  riot,  or  a  protest  in  behalf 
of  the  beneficent  government  of  their  fathers — a  revolution  whose 
opponents  hastened  to  lead  it,  without  a  martyr  to  the  cause  they 
deserted  except  the  nameless  heroes  of  the  mountains  of  Ten 
nessee,  or  a  confessor  of  the  faith  they  had  avowed  save  the  illus 
trious  Petigru  of  South  Carolina ! 

Doubtful  of  the  issues  of  the  war,  exhausted  by  bloodshed, 
anxious  for  peace — peace  and  independence — there  are  some  who 
will  accept  peace  and  union,  but  they  are  not  men  who  will  draw 
•the  sword  for  the  United  States,  and  they  would  be  equally  con 
tent  with  peace  and  independence.  When  the  overthrow  of  the 


376    REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

rebellion  is  an  accomplished  fact,  they  will  acquiesce ;  when  there 
shall  be  neither  hope  nor  fear  of  rebel  supremacy,  they  will  sub 
mit  to  what  we  judge  to  be  necessary  for  their  good  and  for  ours 
if  we  will  peremptorily  declare  the  conditions  necessary  to  secure 
republican  government.  But  it  is  the  veriest  child's  dream  to 
suppose  that,  so  long  as  this  war  lasts,  so  long  as  its  flames  blaze 
over  the  Southern  country,  any  large  portion  of  the  Southern 
population  is  willing  to  cast  in  its  lot  with  the  United  States  for 
good  or  evil,  and  assume  now  the  responsibility  that  they  de 
clined  at  the  beginning,  of  standing  with  us  for  better,  for  worse, 
in  ruin  or  in  triumph. 

There  is  no  fact  that  we  have  learned  from  any  one  who  has 
been  in  the  South,  and  has  come  up  from  the  darkness  of  that 
bottomless  pit,  which  indicates  such  repentance.  There  is  no  fact 
that  any  one  has  stated  on  authority  at  all  reliable  that  any  re 
spectable  proportion  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  now  in 
rebellion  are  willing  to  accept  any  terms  that  even  our  opponents 
on  the  other  side  of  the  House  are  willing  to  offer  them. 

.It  has  been  repeatedly  asserted — Governor  Seymour,  of  New 
York,  in  his  message  asserted — that  peace  could  be  had  upon  any 
reasonable  terms.  That  was  his  guess ;  it  was  his  wish ;  it  was 
his  fond,  vain  hope.  In  fact,  there  is  no  ground  for  such  hope 
and  today  no  man  can  stand  before  the  American  people  and  say 
that  there  is  the  least  reason  to  suppose  that  any  public  man  in 
the  South  has  declared  himself  willing  to  consider  peace  on  any 
conditions  but  that  of  independence. 

i  What,  then,  are  we  to  do  with  the  population  in  these  States  ? 
To  make  "  confusion  worse  confounded"  by  erecting  by  the  side 
of  the  hostile  State  government  a  new  State  government  on  the 
shifting  sands  of  that  whirlpool,  to  be  supported  by  us  while  we 
are  there,  and  to  turn  its  power  against  us  when  we  are  driven 
out  ?  That  would  be  to  erect  a  new  throne  where 

"  Chaos  umpire  sits, 
And  by  decision  more  embroils  the  fray 
By  which  he  reigns." 

In  my  judgment,  it  is  not  safe  to  confide  the  vast  authority  of 
State  governments  to  the  doubtful  loyalty  of  the  rebel  States  un 
til  armed  rebellion  shall  have  been  trampled  into  the  dust,  until 
every  armed  rebel  shall  have  vanished  from  the  State,  until  there 
shall  be  in  the  South  no  hope  of  independence  and  no  fear  of  sub- 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     377 

jection,  until  the  United  States  is  bearded  by  no  military  power, 
and  the  laws  can  be  executed  by  courts  and  sheriffs  without  the 
ever-present  menace  of  military  authority.  Until  we  have  reach 
ed  that  point,  this  bill  proposes  that  the  President  shall  appoint  a 
civil  governor  to  administer  the  government  under  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  and  the  laws  in  force  in  the  States  respectively  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  subject  of  course  to  the  necessities 
of  military  occupation. 

It  is  the  policy  of  an  ancient  soldier  that  I  adopt : 

"  Trust  none ; 

For  oaths  are  straws,  men's  faiths  are  wafer-cakes, 
And  hold-fast's  the  only  dog,  my  duck 
Therefore  coveto  be  thy  counselor." 

When  military  opposition  shall  have  been  suppressed — not 
merely  paralyzed,  driven  into  a  corner,  pushed  back,  but  gone — 
the  horrid  vision  of  civil  war  vanished  from  the  South,  then  call 
upon  the  people  to  reorganize  in  their  own  way,  subject  to  the 
conditions  that  we  think  essential  to  our  permanent  peace,  and  to 
prevent  the  revival  hereafter  of  the  rebellion,  a  republican  gov 
ernment  in  the  form  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  can 
agree  to. 

Now,  for  that  purpose,  there  are  three  modes  indicated.  One 
is  to  remove  the  cause  of  the  war  by  an  alteration  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  prohibiting  slavery  every  where  with 
in  its  limits.  That,  sir,  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  should 
consecrate  the  nation's  triumph.  But  there  are  thirty-four  States 
— three  fourths  of  them  would  be  twenty -six.  I  believe  there  are 
twenty -five  States  represented  in  this  Congress,  so  that  we,  on  that 
basis,  can  not  change  the  Constitution.  It  is,  therefore,  a  condition 
precedent  in  that  view  of  the  case,  that  more  States  shall  have 
governments  organized  within  them.  If  it  be  assumed  that  the 
basis  of  calculation  shall  be  three  fourths  of  the  States  now  repre 
sented  in  Congress,  I  agree  to  that  construction  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  which  I  understand  to  be  that  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Judi 
ciary  Committee,  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens], 
and  not  without  countenance  in  high  judicial  quarters.  I  think 
it  was  never  contemplated  that  the  supreme  political  power  should 
pass  away  from  the  government  of  the  United  States.  But  that 
view  will  probably  encounter  as  much  doubt  as  the  bill  before  the 
House,  besides  involving  serious  delay ;  and,  under  any  circum- 


378     REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

stances,  even  upon  that  basis,  it  will  be  difficult  to  find  three 
fourths  of  the  States,  with  New  Jersey,  or  Kentucky,  or  Mary 
land,  Delaware,  or  other  States  that  might  be  mentioned,  opposed 
to  it  under  existing  auspices,  to  adopt  such  a  clause  of  the  Consti 
tution  after  we  shall  have  agreed  to  it. 

If  adopted,  it  still  leaves  the  whole  field  of  the  civil  administra 
tion  of  the  States  prior  to  the  recognition  of  State  governments,  all 
laws  necessary  to  the  ascertainment  of  the  will  of  the  people,  and 
all  restrictions  on  the  return  to  power  of  the  leaders  of  the  rebel 
lion,  wholly  unprovided  for. 

The  amendment  of  the  Constitution  meets  my  hearty  approval; 
but  it  is  not  a  remedy  for  the  evils  we  must  deal  with. 

The  next  plan  is  that  inaugurated  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  the  proclamation  of  the  8th  of  December,  called  the  Am 
nesty  Proclamation.  That  proposes  no  guardianship  of  the  United 
States  over  the  reorganization  of  the  governments,  no  law  to  pre 
scribe  who  shall  vote,  no  civil  functionaries  to  see  that  the  law  is 
faithfully  executed,  no  supervising  authority  to  control  and  judge 
of  the  election.  But  if,  in  any  manner,  by  the  toleration  of  mar 
tial  law,  lately  proclaimed  the  fundamental  law,  under  the  dicta 
tion  of  any  military  authority,  or  under  the  prescriptions  of  a  pro 
vost-marshal,  something  in  the  form  of  a  government  shall  be  pre 
sented,  represented  to  rest  on  the  votes  of  one  tenth  of  the  popu 
lation,  the  President  will  recognize  that,  provided  it  does  not  con 
travene  the  proclamation  of  freedom  and  the  laws  of  Congress ; 
and,  to  secure  that,  an  oath  is  exacted. 

Now  you  will  observe  that  there  is  no  guarantee  of  law  to  watch 
over  the  organization  of  that  government.  It  may  combine  all 
the  population  of  a  State ;  it  may  combine  one  tenth  only;  or  ten 
governments  may  come  competing  for  recognition  at  the  door  of 
the  executive  mansion.  The  executive  authority  is  pledged; 
Congress  is  not  pledged.  It  may  be  recognized  by  the  military 
power,  and  may  not  be  recognized  by  the  civil  power,  so  that  it 
would  have  a  doubtful  existence,  half  civil  and  half  military,  nei 
ther  a  temporary  government  by  law  of  Congress  nor  a  State 
government,  something  as  unknown  to  the  Constitution  as  the 
rebel  government  that  refuses  to  recognize  it. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  us  regard  its  operation  on  a  great  funda 
mental  measure,  the  existence  of  slavery,  the  condition  of  future 
peace.  How  does  it  accomplish  the  final  removal  of  slavery  ? 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     379 

How  does  it  accomplish  the  reorganization  of  the  government  on 
the  basis  of  universal  freedom  ? 

The  only  prescription  is  that  the  government  shall  not  contra 
vene  the  provisions  of  that  proclamation.  Sir,  if  that  proclama 
tion  be  valid,  then  we  are  relieved  from  all  trouble  on  that  score ; 
but  if  that  proclamation  be  not  valid,  then  the  oath  to  support  it  is 
without  legal  sanction,  for  the 'President  can  ask  no  man  to  bind 
himself  by  an  oath  to  support  an  unfounded  proclamation  or  an 
unconstitutional  law  even  for  a  moment,  still  less  till  it  shall'  have 
been  declared  void  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  the  paramount  right  of  every  American  citizen  to  judge  for 
himself,  oh  his  own  responsibility,  of  his  constitutional  rights  ;  and 
an  oath  does  not  bind  him  to  submit  to  that  which  is  illegal.  If, 
therefore,  he  shall  have  taken  the  oath,  he  can,  in  good  conscience 
as  well  as  in  good  law,  disregard  it  the  next  moment ;  so  that,  in 
point  of  fact,  the  law  leaves  us  where  the  proclamation  does ;  it 
adds  nothing  to  its  legality,  nothing  to  its  force. 

But  what  is  the  proclamation  which  the  new  governments 
must  not  contravene?  That  certain  negroes  shall  be  free,  and 
that  certain  other  negroes  shall  remain  slaves.  The  proclamation 
therefore  recognizes  the  existence  of  slavery.  It  does  just  exactly 
what  all  the  Constitutions  of  the  rebel  States  prior  to  the  rebellion 
did.  It  recognizes  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  they  recognized 
the  existence  of  slavery;  and,  therefore,  the  old  Constitutions 
might  be  restored  to-morrow  without  contravening  the  proclama 
tion  of  freedom.  Those  Constitutions  do  not  say  that  the  Presi 
dent  shall  not  have  the  right,  in  the  exercise  of  his  military  au 
thority,  to  emancipate  slaves  within  the  States.  They  say  noth 
ing  of  the  kind.  They  do  not  even  establish  slavery.  There  is 
not  a  Constitution  in  all  the  rebel  States  that  formally  declares 
slavery  to  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  They  merely  recog 
nize  it  just  as  the  proclamation  recognizes  its  existence  in  parts  of 
Virginia  and  in  parts  of  Louisiana ;  so  that  the  one  tenth  of  the 
population  at  whose  hands  the  President  proposes  to  accept  arid 
guarantee  a  State  government,  can  elect  officers  under  the  old 
Constitution  of  their  State  in  exactly  the  same  terms  and  with  ex 
actly  the  same  powers  existing  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion,  and 
may,  under  his  proclamation,  demand  a  recognition.  No  man 
will  say  that  there  is  one  word  in  their  laws  that  contravenes 
what  purports  to  be  a  paramount,  not  a  subordinate  order.  So 


380    REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

soon  as  the  State  government  is  recognized,  the  operation  of  the 
proclamation  becomes  merely  a  judicial  question.  The  right  of  a 
negro  to  his  freedom  is  a  legal  right  divesting  a  right  of  property, 
and  is  to  be  enforced  in  the  courts ;  and  then  the  question  is  what 
the  courts  will  say  about  the  proclamation.  Is  it  valid  or  inval 
id  ?  Does  it  of  itself  confer  a  legal  right  to  freedom  on  negroes 
who  were  slaves?  Is  it  within  the  authority  of  the  executive? 
These  are  the  only  questions  open  under  such  a  government ;  and 
how  local  State  courts,  created  by  the  Southern  people,  will  de 
cide  such  a  question,  no  one  can  doubt ;  for  it  is  quite  certain  that 
the  great  mass  of  that  population  is  devoted  to  the  system  of  slave 
labor ;  and  though,  if  the  question  be  whether  they  will  give  up 
slavery  as  the  condition  precedent  to  the  restoration  of  a  State 
government,  they  will  abandon  it,  yet  if  it  be  whether  they  prefer 
to  maintain  or  abolish  slavery,  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  that 
their  voice  would  be  almost  unanimous  for  its  maintenance.  If 
they  have  the  decision,  we  know  what  it  will  be  already.  It  is, 
therefore,  under  the  scheme  of  the  President,  merely  a  judicial 
question,  to  be  adjudged  by  judicial  rules,  and  to  be  determined 
by  the  courts.  It  is  a  question  whether  each  individual  negro  be 
free.  It  is  a  question  whether  the  master  has  the  right  of  seizure, 
or  the  negro  can  control  himself.  It  is  to  be  determined  by  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus.  It  is  a  question  of  personal  right,  not  a 
question  of  political  jurisdiction.  Its  fate  in  the  State  courts  is 
certain.  Its  fate  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States  under  existing 
laws  is  scarcely  doubtful.  I  do  not  desire  to  argue  the  legality 
of  the  proclamation  of  freedom.  I  think  it  safer  to  make  it  law. 
But  I  wish  to  admonish  gentlemen  who  rely  on  Dunmore's  proc 
lamation  for  the  right  of  a  military  commander  to  free  slaves  in 
a  civil  war,  that  no  slave  is  known  ever  to  have  claimed  his  free 
dom  under  it,  though,  if  valid,  there  must  have  been  many  per 
sons  so  entitled,  and  the  Courts  of  Virginia  and  of  the  United 
States  were  all  open  to  them  for  its  enforcement  and  their  protec 
tion.  When  they  recite  the  opinions  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  he  is  on  both  sides  of  the  question.  He 
wrote  instructions  to  our  minister  denying  the  right  to  emanci 
pate,  and  claiming  compensation  of  England  for  slaves  carried  off 
in  the  last  war,  and  insisted  upon  the  question  being  decided  by 
the  Emperor  of  Eussia.  And  it  is  farther  a  material  consideration 
that  under  that  claim,  by  authority  of  the  United  States,  and  in 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     381 

the  name  of  that  predecessor  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  England  paid 
divers  pounds  sterling  to  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  for  ne 
groes  she  took,  as  he  alleged,  in  contravention  of  the  laws  of  war. 
If  the  proclamation  free  a  slave,  it  diverts  a  right  sanctioned  by  a 
law  which  he  can  not  repeal ;  and  if  it  be  not  repealed,  it  would 
seem  to  protect  the  right 'it  confers.  Under  the  act  of  1862  the 
President  is  authorized  to  use  the  negro  population  for  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion  ;  while  the  rebellion  lasts,  his  proclama 
tion  in  law  exempts  the  slave  from  the  duty  of  obeying  his  mas 
ter  ;  but  after  the  rebellion  is  extinguished,  the  master's  rights  are 
in  his  own  hands,  subject  only  to  the  opinion  of  the  courts  on  the 
legal  effect  of  the  proclamation,  without  a  single  precedent  to  sanc 
tion  it,  and  opposed  by  the  solemn  assertions  of  our  government 
against  the  principle  worked  to  authorize  it.  Gentlemen  are  less 
prudent  or  less  in  earnest  than  I  am  if  they  will  risk  the  great 
issues  involved  in  this  question  on  such  authorities  before  the 
courts  of  justice. 

By  the  bill  we  propose  to  preclude  the  judicial  question  by  the 
solution  of  a  political  question.  How  so  ?  By  the  paramount 
power  of  Congress  to  reorganize  governments  in  those  States,  to 
impose  such  conditions  as  it  thinks  necessary  to  secure  the  per 
manence  of  republican  government,  to  refuse  to  recognize  any 
governments  there  which  do  not  prohibit  slavery  forever.  Ay, 
gentlemen  take  the  responsibility  to  say,  in  the  face  of  those  who 
clamor  for  speedy  recognition  of  governments  tolerating  slavery, 
that  the  safety  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  the  supreme 
law ;  that  their  will  is  the  supreme  rule  of  law,  and  that  we  are 
authorized  to  pronounce  their  will  on  this  subject — take  the  re 
sponsibility  to  say  that  we  will  revise  the  judgments  of  our  an 
cestors;  that  we  have  experience  written  in  blood  which  they 
had  not;  that  we  find  now,  what  they  darkly  doubted,  that  slavery 
is  really,  radically  inconsistent  with  the  permanence  of  republican 
governments ;  and  that,  being  charged  by  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  on  our  conscience  and  judgment,  to  guarantee,  that  is,  to 
continue,  maintain,  and  enforce,  if  it  exist,  to  institute  and  restore 
when  overthrown,  republican  governments  throughout  the  broad 
limits  of  the  republic,  we  will  weed  out  every  element  of  their 
policy  which  we  think  incompatible  with  its  permanence  and  en 
durance.  The  purpose  of  the  bill  is  to  preclude  the  judicial  ques 
tion  of  the  validity  and  effect  of  the  President's  proclamation  by 


382     REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES. 

the  decision  of  the  political  authority  in  reorganizing  the  State 
governments.  It  makes  the  rule  of  decision  the  provisions  of  the 
State  Constitution,  which,  when  recognized  by  Congress,  can  be 
questioned  in  no  court ;  and  it  adds  to  the  authority  of  the  proc 
lamation  the  sanction  of  Congress.  If  gentlemen  say  that  the 
Constitution  does  not  bear  that  construction,  we  will  go  before 
the  people  of  the  United  States  on  that  question,  and  by  their 
judgment  we  will  abide. 

Gentlemen  must  deny  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress  over  the 
States  where  there  are  no  recognized  governments,  or  place  a 
bound  or  limit  to  the  discretion  of  Congress.  Until  gentlemen 
find  such  a  limit  to  the  discretion  of  Congress  under  the  para 
mount  duty  imposed,  not  conferred,  upon  Congress  to  guarantee 
republican  governments,  until  gentlemen  draw  their  line  of  de 
marcation  and  show  that  Congress  has  not  the  jurisdiction  to  re 
move  what  it  thinks  incompatible  with  the  permanence  of  repub 
lican  governments,  I  shall  rest  the  argument  where  it  is  now. 
When  they  shall  have  attempted  to  lay  down  their  line  of  demar 
cation,  I  will  be  ready  to  meet  them  with  such  opinions  of  the 
founders  of  the  government,  and  those  who  in  their  footsteps 
have  most  wisely  expounded  its  provisions,  as  I  may  be  able 
to  find. 

And  if  the  sentiments  of  State  pride  and  State  rights  be  touched 
by  the  assertion  of  this  wide  discretion,  which  men  may  deny  but 
can  not  expunge,  I  would  admonish  those  who  dislike  it  that  it  is 
a  jurisdiction  which  nothing  but  the  dereliction  of  the  States  can 
wake  into  activity,  and  they  who  wish  to  exclude  it  from  their 
limits  have  only  not  to  give  occasion  for  its  exercise  by  renounc 
ing  obedience  to  the  Constitution  and  pulling  down  their  own 
State  governments.  But  now  the  jurisdiction  has  attached  in  all 
the  rebel  States.  Until  Congress  has  assented,  there  is  no  State 
government  in  any  rebel  State,  and  none  will  be  recognized  ex 
cept  such  as  recognize  the  power  of  the  United  States ;  so  that 
we  come  down  to  this :  whether  we — and  when  I  say  we,  I  mean 
we  upon  this  side  of  the  House,  who  are  firmly,  thoroughly,  and 
honestly  convinced  that  the  time  has  come  not  merely  to  strike 
the  arms  from  the  hands  of  the  rebels,  but  to  strike  the  fetters 
from  the  arms  of  the  slaves,  and  remove  that  domineering  and 
cohesive  power  without  which  we  could  have  had  no  rebellion, 
and  which  now  is  its  animating  spirit,  and  which  will  die  when  it 


REPUBLICAN  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.     383 

dies — whether  we  will  exert  the  power  which  the  Constitution 
confers  upon  us,  and  whether  in  our  judgment — not  in  the  judg 
ment  of  our  enemies — who  have  a  majority  in  this  House  and  a 
majority  in  the  Senate;  in  our  judgment,  who  now  represent  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States;  in  our  judgment, 
who  now  support  the  executive  in  this  great  war ;  whether  in  our 
judgment  it  is  not  time  to  assert  that  authority. 

And  if  it  be  time,  then  all  I  ask  in  conclusion  is,  that  gentlemen 
will  go  and  read  that  great  argument  of  Daniel  Webster  in  the 
Rhode  Island  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
where  he  met  this  semi-revolutionary  attempt  to  count  heads  and 
call  that  the  people,  and  maintained — and  so  the  Supreme  Court 
judged  when  it  refused  to  take  jurisdiction  of  the  question — that 
the  great  political  law  of  America  is  that  every  change  of  govern 
ment  shall  be  conducted  under  the  supervising  authority  of  some 
existing  legislative  body  throwing  the  protection  of  law  around 
the  polls,  defining  the  rights  of  voters,  protecting  them  in  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  guarding  against  fraud,  repelling 
violence,  and  appointing  arbiters  to  pronounce  the  result  and  de 
clare  the  persons  chosen  by  the  people.  And  he  says,  greatly  to 
the  honor  of  the  American  people,  it  would  take  him  to  the  going 
down  of  the  sun  to  enumerate  the  instances  in  which  almost  every 
Constitution  in  the  United  States  has  been  changed  without  one 
ever  having  been  changed  by  a  revolutionary  process,  not  under 
the  aegis  of  law,  not  guided  by  a  pre-existing  political  authority. 
He  maintained  it  to  be  the  great  fundamental  principle  of  the 
American  government  that  legislation  shall  guide  every  political 
change,  and  that  it  assumes  that  somewhere  within  the  United 
States  there  is  always  a  permanent,  organized  legal  authority 
which  shall  guide  the  tottering  footsteps  of  those  who  seek  to  re 
store  governments  which  are  disorganized  and  broken  down. 

This  bill  is  an  effort  to  inaugurate  in  this  great  emergency,  and 
to^apply  to  the  benefit  of  ourselves  and  our  posterity °this  great 
principle  of  American  political  law,  which  was  expounded  by  the 
first  greatest  expounder  of  the  Constitution. 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MAKYLAND. 

MEANTIME  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  had  authorized  the  submis 
sion  to  the  people  of  the  question  of  a  Convention  for  altering  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  State,  and  the  canvass  was  about  to  commence  as  to 
delegates  to  that  Convention,  if  approved,  in  favor  of  emancipation. 

A  large  meeting  was  held  in  the  Maryland  Institute,  in  Baltimore,  on 
the  1st  of  April,  18G4,  in  pursuance  of  a  call  by  the  Unconditional  Union 
State  Central  Committee  to  hear  these  questions  discussed.  On  that 
occasion  Mr.  Davis  spoke  as  follows : 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  MARYLAND, — "We  are  now,  I  think,  about 
at  the  end  of  the  canvasses  which  so  long  have  agitated  Maryland, 
in  one  aspect  or  another,  of  the  Negro  Question.  Last  fall  the 
people  of  Maryland  indicated  by  an  almost  unprecedented  major 
ity  their  conviction  that  the  times  required  that  Maryland  should 
be  put  upon  the  same  basis  of  free  institutions  which  have  wrought 
such  miracles  of  prosperity  among  our  Northern  sisters.  (Ap 
plause.) 

They  gave  that  desire  by  twenty  thousand  majority.  Their 
will  was  very  nearly  defeated  by  the  selection  of  their  candidates. 
The  people  found  themselves  with  a  Legislature  opposed  to  them 
upon  every  material  point  of  interest;  a  doubtful  majority  against 
them  in  the  Lower  House ;  a  decided  and  resolute  majority  against 
them  in  the  Senate ;  the  validity  of  the  election  attacked  by  its 
enemies,  who  ascribed  its  successes  to  the  bayonets  of"  the  tyrant 
Schenck !"  The  governor  had  thrown  obstacles  in  the  path  of 
our  success,  and  in  his  message  to  the  Legislature  he  smeared  the 
election  all  over  with  the  imputation  of  illegality. 

The  enemy  held  possession  of  both  branches  of  the  Legislature, 
but  they  did  not  dare  to  unseat  one  man  elected  at  that "  void" 
election.  They  whined,  they  shuffled,  they  evaded,  they  strug 
gled  and  held  back,  but  they  did  not  dare  to  adjourn  without 
passing  our  Convention  Bill ;  and  now  we  have  the  question  di 
rectly  before  us,  and  you,  gentlemen,  have  the  decision  of  it  in 
your  hands. 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND.  385 

We  have  made  our  nominations ;  our  enemies  have  made  theirs ; 
and  the  question  is,  which  of  the  two  are  to  fill  the  seats  of  the 
Convention  ?  Are  we  to  have  a  Convention  opposed  to  emanci 
pation,  as  the  Legislature  was  opposed  to  emancipation,  and  trust 
to  the  moral  power  of  the  coercion  of  the  popular  vote  to  compel 
them  to  discharge  their  duties  ?  Or  shall  we  have  a  Convention 
composed  of  the  gentlemen  we  have  nominated,  who  go  there  for 
the  purpose  of  executing  the  will  that  the  people  have  expressed, 
and  who,  when  they  get  there,  will  have  the  manliness  and  the 
resolution  to  act  up  to  the  duties  that  have  been  prescribed  for 
them  ?  That,  and  that  only,  is  the  question. 

There  are  other  questions  that  are  thrown  before  you  for  the 
purpose  of  deluding  you,  as  has  been  the  habit  heretofore  in  all 
political  canvasses.  You  have  been  told  that  other  questions  than 
the  real  one  are  the  real  questions  you  are  called  upon  to  determ 
ine  ;  and  what  little  I  have  to  say  here  to-night  is  mainly  for  the 
purpose  of  clearing  up  all  misapprehensions  on  that  subject — of 
simply  stating  the  question  to  you  for  you  to  decide,  and  then 
leave  to  the  distinguished  gentlemen  who  have  honored  us  by 
their  company  this  evening  the  enforcement  of  the  views  which 
are  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 

The  slavery  interest,  of  course,  struggles  vigorously  to  maintain 
its  domination.  It  has  been  heretofore  your  master,  as  well  as  the 
master  of  its  slaves.  One  fourth  of  the  people  of  the  State  have 
ruled  it  by  the  existing  Constitution.  They  have  used  their  pow 
er  to  take  to  themselves  the  lion's  share  of  our  political  honor,  and 
to  cast  upon  you  the  ass's  share  of  every  political  burden.  The 
political  power  has  been  down  in  the  rotten-borough  counties  of 
St.  Mary's,  Charles,  Calvert,  Prince  George's,  and  Anne  Arundel, 
and  over  in  Somerset,  Talbot,  and  Queen  Anne's.  Their  slaves 
have  been  exempted  from  equal  taxation. 

Their  laws  have  compensated  slaveholders  every  where  for  their 
slaves  when  they  forfeited  their  lives  by  violation  of  the  law.  The 
taxes  have  been  imposed  upon  the  city  of  Baltimore ;  the  taxes 
have  been  imposed  upon  the  northern  and  western  portions  of  the 
State.  The  laws  have  been  passed  at  the  dictation  of  the  south 
ern  portion ;  the  burdens  have  been  borne  by  the  northern  por 
tion.  In  the  south,  south  of  the  Patapsco  Kiver  and  south  of  the 
Sassafras  River,  you  have  about  one  fourth  of  the  white  popula 
tion  of  the  State,  and  you  have  one  half  of  all  its  political  power. 

BE 


386  ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 

I  desire  gentlemen  in  that  part  of  the  State  to  know  that  the 
first  practical  fruit  we  expect  to  reap  from  the  breaking  down  of 
the  slavery  system  is  to  break  down  the  domination  of  the  power 
in  those  masters  (applause) ;  to  redistribute  political  power  in  the 
State ;  to  reassert  the  right  of  numbers ;  to  restore  the  disturbed 
balance  of  popular  power;  to  make  those  who  are  in  the  minority 
obey  the  will  of  those  who  are  in  the  majority,  and  not,  as  at  pres 
ent,  permit  them  to  hold  a  veto  upon  your  will,  and  wield  a  ma 
jority  in  the  event  of  their  being  able  to  buy,  or  coax,  or  bully 
one  or  two  votes  in  the  other  House  against  you. 

That  is  what  we  mean  to  accomplish  in  the  first  place.  That 
they  do  not  like,  and  therefore  their  game  is  upon  divers  pretexts 
to  prevent  the  calling  of  a  Convention,  for  they  know  perfectly 
well  that  there  is  small  chance  of  their  controlling  the  Conven 
tion  if  it  shall  happen  to  be  called.  They  have  set  up  the  claim 
for  State  compensation  for  their  worthless  negroes,  and  they  ex 
pect  to  sweep  the  slaveholding  regions  of  the  State,  and  cause  the 
sixteen  or  eighteen  millions  of  dollars  of  surplus  that  will  be  raised 
in  the  free  part  of  the  State  to  be  scattered  broadcast  in  the  slave 
part  of  the  State,  and  therefore  they  have  a  great  interest  to  make 
it  appear  that  slaves  are  property,  not  merely  by  the  conventional 
law,  but  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  that  they  are  entitled  to  com 
pensation  when  that  property  ceases  by  the  law  to  be  propert}'. 
That  carries  a  very  powerful  influence  in  all  the  slaveholding 
parts  of  the  State.  Here  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  then  in  the 
large  free  counties  of  Washington,  and  Frederick,  and  Alleghany, 
they  come  with  a  more  insidious  plea:  "  You,  gentlemen,  here, 
are  in  favor  of  emancipation,  and  uncompensated  emancipation, 
but  the  Convention  is  called  upon  the  basis  of  the  old  apportion 
ment,  and  we  may  elect  a  majority  of  it ;  therefore  you  had  better 
vote  against  calling  a  Convention  to  save  yourselves  against  the 
dangers  of  the  burdens  of  compensation."  And  this  is  having  its 
effect  on  the  friends  of  emancipation  every  where. 

Now  all  that  I  desire  to  say  on  that  topic  is  this  one  plain,  sim 
ple  fact:  If  they  carry  every  slaveholding  county  in  the  State 
they  elect  only  half  the  Convention,  and  with  half  the  Convention 
they  can  pass  no  ordinance.  In  the  next  place,  whatever  ordi 
nance  they  may  pass  as  part  of  the  Constitution  has  to  be  submit 
ted  to  the  vote  of  the  people  for  their  sanction,  and  the  vote  of 
the  city  of  Baltimore  alone  will  defeat  any  bill  for  compensation. 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND.  387 

(Great  applause.)     And,  in  "the  next  place,  they  will  not  have 
half  the  Convention,     (Eenewed  applause.) 

That  is  their  day-dream ;  ay,  and  it  is  their  last  dream,  for  the 
day  of  dreams  has  gone  and  the  day  of  facts  has  come.  Let  the 
people  remember  that  in  the  Africa  of  the  Eastern  Shore,  my 
friend,  Mr.  Creswell,  now  fills  the  seat  that  Mr.  Crisfield — that 
the  Compensationists  were  obliged  to  abandon  (applause) — and 
did  it  on  open  canvass  in  the  face  of  the  people,  arrayed  the  in 
terest  and  the  power  of  the  non-slaveholder  against  the  wealthy 
slaveholder,  teaching  them  that  every  man  counts  one  at  the  polls, 
and  a  rich  man  counts  no  more.  (Great  applause.) 

Upon  that  simple  rule  of  political  arithmetic,  my  friend  Mr. 
Creswell  occupies  the  seat  that  Mr.  Crisfield  competed  for.  From 
that  fact,  I  desire  our  friends  in  the  southern  counties  to  estimate 
the  chances  of  a  tie  in  the  Constitutional  Convention.  I  aided  in 
my  humble  way  my  friend  Mr.  Creswell  in  his  canvass.  I  went 
down  into  the  deep  regions  of  the  dominion  of  slavery  (laughter), 
where  manufactures  are  unknown,  and  money  is  hardly  seen  by 
poor  men,  who  wear  homespun  and  have  to  walk  twenty  miles  to 
get  to  our  political  meetings,  and  it  was  these  men  who,  for  three 
•generations — they  and  their  ancestors — had  been  voting  at  the 
dictation  of  the  leading  gentlemen  of  their  regions,  who  ride  on 
their  horses  to  the  election,  and  used  formerly  to  give  out  their 
wagons  to  carry  their  poorer  neighbors  there,  but  declined  on  this 
occasion,  because  they  knew  their  opinions ;  it  was  in  that  region 
that  by  our  aid  those  men  came  forward  and  cast  their  first  inde 
pendent  vote,  for  their  own  freedom  first,  and  the  freedom  of  the 
negro  afterward.  (Applause.) 

Now  I  commend  to  those  gentlemen  a  hopeful  aspect  of  their 
cause ;  look  at  the  result.  Twenty  thousand  majority  in  Mary 
land  for  emancipation  on  an  issue  forced  upon  us  (applause) ; 
Governor  Thomas  elected  for  the  second  time  without  an  oppo 
nent  daring  to  meet  him;  Mr.  Webster  candidly  coming  to  our 
platform,  accepting  our  principles,  and  nobody  finding  pluck  to 
meet  him  in  his  district ;  men  in  high  position  struggling  for  an 
opponent  to  me  up  to  within  a  week  of  the  election,  and  nobody 
willing  to  take  the  chance  of  beating  me  (applause) ;  Mr.  Creswell 
met  by  the  ablest  man  of  the  Eastern  Shore,  a  gentleman  of  large 
property,  a  large  landholder,  a  large  negro-holder,  with  a  national 
reputation,  leaning  to  the  Copperhead  style  of  politics,  intensely 


388  ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 

conservative,  fearful  that  the  President  and  the  administration 
were  going  too  far,  and  might  put  down  the  rebellion  too  rapidly 
and  too  vigorously  by  rooting  out  its  cause — that  man  represent 
ing  in  its  milder  and  only  presentable  type  before  the  people  of 
Maryland  the  Compensationist,  the  tardy  Gradual  Emancipation 
ist,  the  men  who  thought  the  offer  of  ten  millions  of  dollars  was 
an  insult,  and  the  other  class  of  men  who  thought  it  ought  to  be 
"  spit  upon."  This  man  was  beaten  by  Mr.  Creswell,  who  argued 
at  every  man's  door  that  Jhe  time  for  emancipation,  both  of  black 
and  white,  from  the  slavery  domination  was  come.  (Applause.) 

And  now  they  come  before  the  people  of  Maryland,  hoping 
that,  under  the  mild  rule  which  it  was  supposed  might  prevail  at 
Washington,  all  the  secesh,  together  with  the  pro-slavery  part  of 
the  Union  body  of  the  citizens,  might  enable  them  to  save  their 
property,  or  burden  you  with  paying  their  estimated  value.  I 
need  only  say  to  gentlemen  what  now  every  one  here  sees,  that 
after  all  the  clamor,  after  all  the  imputations,  after  all  the  insults, 
after  all  the  wretched  affidavits,  after  all  the  flimsy  secesh  certifi 
cates,  after  the  howl  in  the  Legislature  against  the  last  election, 
the  principle  stands  as  Maryland  law,  by  the  vote  of  our  enemies 
in  the  Legislature  of  Maryland,  that  men  who  are  traitors  to  their 
country,  and  can  be  found  out,  have  no  part  in  our  political  com 
munity.  (Great  applause.)  That  Legislature  has  more  than  rat 
ified  my  declaration  that  when  we  speak  of  political  power  in 
Maryland,  we  do  not  count  traitors  as  part  of  that  people  in  Ma 
ryland  ;  we  do  not  mean  that  they  shall  be  counted  as  part  of  that 
power  (great  applause),  and  that  the  only  question  the  people  of 
Maryland  will  listen  to  for  an  instant  on  that  point  is  whether  the 
individual  who  offers  his  vote  is  or  is  not  faithful  to  the  govern 
ment  of  his  fathers  ?  If  he  is  unfaithful,  he  can  not  be  allowed  to 
soil  the  ballot-box  of  Maryland.  (Great  applause.)  If  he  is  faith 
ful,  welcome,  though  he  be  perverse  as  Yallandigham.  (Laughter.) 

But,  according  to  the  opinion  of  certain  persons,  we  who  are  for 
the  Convention  are  in  favor  of  "  negro  equality,"  in  favor  of  ne 
gro  political  privileges ;  and  these  gentlemen — our  enemies — are 
exceedingly  exercised  lest  that  should  become  the  law  of  Mary 
land.  Nay,  they  say  here  they  are  as  good  emancipators  as  I  am 
— they  know  they  can  not  be  any  better — so  they  take  me  as  the 
standard  (laughter),  but  they  do  not  go  quite  as  far.  Of.  course 
not. 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND.  389 

They  were  dragged  thus  far.  They  did  not  go  at  all ;  they 
were  dragged,  they  were  compelled,  they  were  overborne  by  the 
overwhelming  power  of  the  popular  vote  to  confess  and  profess 
what  now  they  do  not  believe.  If  you  trust  them,  they  will  cheat 
you.  And  these  men. have  the  inconceivable  impudence  to  say 
they  do  not  go  as  far  as  I  do  because  they  are  not  in  favor  of  ne 
gro  equality,  and  that  I  am,  and  that  the  gentlemen  who  act  with 
me  are.  They  do  not  know,  when  they  speak  of  the  gentlemen 
with  whom  I  act,  that  they  are  libeling  the  great  body  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland.  They  do  not  know,  when  they  speak  of  the 
gentlemen  who  stand  with  me,  that  they  are  the  men  who  beat 
them  by  20,000  majority  last  fall.  (Applause.) 

They  do  not  know,  when  they  attempt  to  speak  of  the  opinions 
that  I  express,  that  they  speak  of  the  opinions  ratified,  against 
their  libels,  at  the  ballot-box  by  the  people  of  Maryland ;  and  if 
they  want  to  know  my  opinion  upon  negro  equality,  I  can  tell 
them  my  opinion  upon  that  as  upon  any  other  question  without 
any  trouble  at  all.  I  am  perfectly  content  that  the  negro  shall 
be  equal  with  them,  but  not  with  rne  or  my  friends.  (Tremen 
dous  applause.) 

In  my  judgment,  they  that  are  afraid  of  negro  equality  are  not 
much  above  it  now.  Do  they  understand  that  ?  (Laughter.)  In 
my  judgment,  they  that  are  afraid  of  marrying  a  negro  woman 
had  better  go  to  the  Legislature  and  petition  for  a  law  to  punish 
them  if  they  are  guilty  of  that  weakness.  (Laughter.) 

But  when  gentlemen  presume,  in  any  of  their  wretched  political 
circulars  or  speeches  to  the  people  of  Maryland,  to  say  that  they 
do  not  go  as  far  as  I  because  I  am  in  favor  of  negro  equality,  they 
libel  me.  They  know  that  it  is  one  of  the  paltry,  dirty  tricks  to 
cheat  men  who  they  suppose  are  fools  enough  to  be  cheated. 
They  know  that  no  man  in  Maryland,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the 
other,  raises  that  question  excepting  themselves.  They  know  that 
they  raise  it  merely  to  delude.  They  know  that  they  raise  that 
question  in  the  hope  that  they  can  get  some  blacking  to  stick 
on  the  character  that  they  have  been  persistently  attempting  to 
smear  for  ten  years,  and  which  they  have  not  dimmed  yet.  (Ap 
plause.) 

What  then  ?  "  Compensation  for  the  invaluable  right  of  prop 
erty" — the  touching  of  the  "  inalienable  right  of  property !"  And 
who  are  they  that  have  the  insolence  to  make  this  claim  ?  Men 


390  ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 

who  stand  upon  the  statute-books  of  Maryland  for  the  last  forty 
years  as  plunderers  of  the  public  purse  for  their  private  benefit ; 
men  who  passed  a  law  to  say  that  the  property  which  they  now 
want  to  get  within  the  protection  of  the  law  of  property  should 
not  be  brought  within  the  limits  of  the  burdens  of  property,  for 
their  special  benefit — property  which  they  by  formal  law  exempt 
ed  from  the  sworn  appraisers  of  the  law — property  which  in  the 
counties  they  have  said  shall  be  valued  at  an  arbitrary  and  a  dis 
gracefully  inadequate  valuation — property  which  now,  after  it  is 
gone,  they  estimate  at  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  and  two  years 
ago,  when  it  was  to  be  taxed,  the  Comptroller's  Keport  shows  they 
estimated  at  fourteen  millions  of  dollars.  When  they  talk  of  the 
rights  of  property  and  of  pay  for  their  negroes,  let  them  open  their 
accounts  with  the  Comptroller  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  pay 
back  the  plundered  arrearages  of  thirty  years  of  partial  legislation. 
(Great  applause.) 

I  do  not  know  that  they  will  find  a  paymaster  in  this  audience; 
I  do  not  know  that  they  will  find  one  in  the  State  of  Maryland ; 
and  I  rather  incline  to  think  that  the  stupidity  that  prevailed  over 
them,  the  judicial  blindness  that  rested  upon  them,  made  them 
spurn  the  only  chance  they  ever  had  of  receiving  any  thing  as  a 
ransom  for  their  slaves.  For,  gentlemen,  you  will  remember  I 
have  a  maliciously  long  memory,  unfortunately  (laughter);  these 
gentlemen  forget  every  three  months ;  I  take  it  that  the  world 
whirls  so  fast  that  they  become  giddy  and  do  not  know  which 
way  they  are  looking  now ;  but  they  forget  that  it  has  not  been 
more  than  a  year  and  a  half  since  I  endeavored  to  induce  Congress 
to  execute  the  proposal  of  the  President  and  give  $10,000,000  to 
the  slaveholders  of  Maryland ;  and  they  seem  to  have  forgotten 
that  Mr.  Anthony  Kennedy,  the  representative  of  the  pro-slavery 
interest,  said  that  he  would  spit  upon  your  ten  millions  of  dollars, 
and  that  Governor  Hicks  said  that  it  was  an  insult  which  he  could 
not  pocket. 

Such  is  the  course  of  events,  so  rapidly  does  the  tide  run,  so 
swiftly  do  men  and  opinions  change,  that  the  result  of  our  victory 
last  year  has  been  to  drive  every  one  of  these  gentlemen  now  to 
clamor  for  compensation,  part  from  the  State,  but  most  of  them 
from  the  general  government. 

Fellow-citizens,  allow  me  to  say  that  repentance  on  the  day  of 
judgment  will  as  surely  carry  them  to  heaven  as  repentance  now 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND.  391 

will  bring  them  compensation  from  the  general  government. 
(Laughter  and  applause.) 

The  day  of  death  is  past.  Between  them  and  compensation  the 
great  gulf  is  fixed.  The  rich  man  now  is  on  one  side  of  that  gulf 
and  Lazarus  upon  the  other,  and  I  do  not  know  that  there  is 
much  communication  between  them.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 

Hopeless,  wretched,  miserable,  praying  to  a  god  that  once  smiled 
on  them  and  now  frowns,  they  say,  "Give  us  emancipation  with 
compensation  by  the  government."  Of  course  they  do ;  but  the 
people  are  for  emancipation  without  compensation  by  the  govern 
ment,  and  the  people  are  the  stronger  of  the  two.  (Great  ap 
plause.) 

And  how  are  they  going  to  get  it  ?  They  have  been  so  in  the 
habit  of  working  for  themselves  in  political  life  that  they  forget 
that  the  proposal  of  the  President  to  them  in  Maryland  was  a 
bargain  that  had  two  sides  to  it.  It  was  intended  to  promote  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion.  The  purpose  was  to  save  a  thou 
sand  millions  of  dollars.  The  purpose  was  to  save  a  year  of  an 
archy  and  bloodshed.  The  year  has  gone.  The  thousand  mil 
lions  of  dollars  are  sunk  in  the  ruts  of  our  artillery  in  the  South. 
The  blood  is  shed.  The  blood  that  pays  the  ransom  of  the  negro 
is  poured  out,  and  the  money  of  the  government  went  with  it- 
(Great  applause.) 

It  is  just  as  well  to  look  facts  in  the  face  as  not.  I  say  they 
are  going  to  have — in  my  judgment  they  will  have,  in  my  pur 
pose  they  shall  have — no  compensation  from  the  government  of 
the  United  States  if  I  can  avert  it.  (Applause.)  They  refused 
the  offer  when  it  was  made,  and  when  the  acceptance  of  it  would 
have  saved  thousands  of  lives  and  shortened  this  desolating  rebel 
lion  ;  they  spurned  it,  scoffed  at  it,  scouted  those  who  proposed  it, 
did  their  best  to  beat  and  defeat  the  project  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  and  now  they  may  eat  the  bitter  fruits  of  their  folly. 

Why  should  the  United  States  pay  for  a  dead  dog  any  more 
than  the  people  of  Maryland  ?  They  do  not  free  their  slaves  now 
because  they  want  to  do  so,  but  they  free  them  because  the  peo 
ple  of  Maryland  have  said  they  shall  be  free ;  and  after  that  is 
said,  "  Oh,  well,  if  they  are  to  be  free,  we  should  like  to  be  com 
pensated  for  them."  Compensated  for  what?  For  that  which  is 
nothing  by  the  fiat  of  the  people,  which  only  awaits  the  forms  of 
law — compensated  for  an  absolute  interest  which  only  has  six 


392  °N  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 

months  of  life  remaining  in  it — compensated  for  slaves  made 
valueless  as  a  house  is  reduced  to  no  value  by  a  conflagration 
which  burns  it  down ! 

Why  should  any  body  pay  them?  They  have  no  claim  in 
morals.  The  United  States  never  granted  them  slave  property. 
It  merely  said,  "  If  it  runs  away  it  shall  be  delivered  up,"  but  not 
that  if  the  people  of  Maryland  see  fit  to  repeal  the  law  allowing 
slavery,  the  government  will  continue  to  consider  as  property 
what  the  people  of  Maryland  refuse  any  longer  themselves  to  con 
sider  as  property,  and  that  they  will  pay  as  property  for  what  the 
people  of  Maryland  say  shall  no  longer  be  property.  Upon  what 
ground  is  it?  It  is  a  political  institution.  It  is  like  the  tariff 
which  now,  twice  or  three  times  in  the  limit  of  my  life,  has  made 
and  destroyed  values  infinitely  greater  than  the  value  of  the  slave 
property  of  Maryland. 

South  Carolina  and  all  the  South  have  twice  or  thrice,  within 
the  limits  of  my  life,  rejoiced  over  the  prostration  of  a  tariff  sys 
tem,  the  mere  repeal  of  which  effaced  millions  and  millions  of 
dollars  throughout  all  of  New  England  and  all  the  free  States ; 
but  did  ever  any  body  think  that  because  the  course  of  politics 
had  changed,  because  the  current  policy  of  the  government  had 
changed,  because  a  law  which  the  Congress  placed  upon  the  stat 
ute-book  another  Congress  had  seen  fit  to  repeal,  therefore  we 
must  compensate  the  broken  manufacturers  of  Massachusetts  and 
the  iron-dealers  of  Pennsylvania  or  Maryland  ?  Yet  that  is  ex 
actly  what  we  are  asked  to  do  now. 

Negroes  are  no  more  property  by  the  law  of  nature  than  white 
men.  White  men  agreed  between  themselves  that  they  should 
be  so  regarded,  and  they  took  the  chances  of  the  insurance,  and 
they  insured  themselves  beforehand  against  the  damage  of  the  ul 
timate  conflagration  which  is  now  consuming  them,  by  robbing 
the  State  treasury  of  the  taxes  upon  their  real  value.  That  is 
their  compensation.  Their  compensation  is  the  improved  value 
of  their  lands.  Their  compensation  is  four  generations  of  uncom- 
pensated  labor.  Their  compensation  is  the  cleared  lands  of  all 
Southern  Maryland,  where  every  thing  that  smiles  and  blossoms 
is  the  work  of  the  negro  that  they  tore  from  Africa. 

Because  they  have  enjoyed  his  uncompensated  labor  for  four 
generations,  shall  we  now  give  them  a  commutation  of  value? 
I  do  not  know  what  the  people  of  Maryland  will  say  on  that  sub- 


ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND.  393 

ject,  but  I  have  a  very  definite  opinion  upon  what  I  will  help 
them  to  say,  and  that  is,  that  they  have  had  the  value  which  they 
had  no  right  to  for  four  generations,  and  they  may  rest  upon  that. 
If  they  suppose  that  we  are  fools  enough  to  go  into  the  next 
presidential  canvass  with  our  necks  burdened  down  by  the  mill 
stone  of  compensation  for  all  the  property  destroyed  by  the  gov 
ernment  in  the  course  of  this  terrible  war,  slaves  included,  they 
are  mistaken ;  the  candidate  that  goes  into  the  canvass  upon  that 
basis  goes  dedicated  to  the  ruin ;  for  no  mass,  no  considerable,  no 
respectable  proportion  of  the  people  of  the  States  of  America  will 
ever  agree  to  double  the  war  debt,  for  all  slaveholders  will  per 
suade  doubting  commissioners  that  they  were  loyal,  and  should  re 
ceive  compensation  for  the  very  property  which  their  brothers, 
and  friends,  and  neighbors  rebelled  to  secure.  (Applause.) 

There  is  scarcely  a  household  where  there  is  not  one  dead; 
there  is  scarcely  a  household  where  children  are  not  lacking  for 
some  of  the  comforts  of  life  by  reason  of  this  great  war,  and  their 
wants  must  not  be  increased  to  give  luxuries  to  the  rich  slavehold 
ers.  The  negro  is  paid  for  by  the  hardships  that  men  are  now  en 
during.  He  is  paid  for  by  the  increased  price  of  labor,  the  in 
creased  price  of  land  and  bread,  the  withdrawal  of  labor  from  the 
free  States,  the  converting  of  an  immense  population  into  an  army. 
This  is  the  pay  for  it.  It  is  paid  for  by  the  iniquity  of  the  rebel 
lion,  and  they  will  get  no  other  pay  but  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion.  (Great  applause.) 

Now,  my  friends,  as  usual,  I  have  said  just  what  I  think  is  com 
ing  to  pass.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  cunning  contrivers  of  fu 
ture  political  platforms  will  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two  have  a 
wretched,  shriveled  party  in  some  corner  of  Maryland  called  the 
"  Anti-JSTegro-Equality  Party,"  and  they  will  be  rushing  out  fran 
tically  into  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  and  to  the  cross-roads,  and 
the  groggery-shops  of  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  to  get  some 
body  to  be  foolish  enough  to  elect  a  man  because  he  is  opposed 
to  negro  equality,  without  any  body's  proposing  it  on  the  other 
side ;  and,  foreseeing  that  that  is  about  to  be  the  case,  I  have 
thought  it  might  just  be  convenient  at  this  time  to  say  that  they 
who  are  preparing  for  that  canvass  are  attempting  to  delude  peo 
ple  whom  they  can  not  delude,  and  are  preparing  for  a  canvass  in 
which  they  will  receive  a  worse  castigation  than  in  that  of  the  last 
fall. 


394  ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  MARYLAND. 

Fellow-citizens,  only  one  word  in  conclusion.  All  that  I  beg 
of  you  is  this :  when  the  day  of  election  comes  round,  you  will 
take  the  trouble,  you  and  your  friends,  to  walk  to  the  polls,  so  that 
Baltimore  may  have  the  benefit  of  the  power  of  her  enormous 
population,  that  she  may  be  secure  in  carrying  the  Convention, 
which  not  merely  rids  her  commercial  wealth  of  the  burden  of 
being  in  a  slave  State,  but  restores  to  her  her  political  equality 
with  all  the  free  regions  of  the  State.  It  requires  only  that  we 
shall  turn  out,  and  the  result  is  accomplished ;  and  if  we  'do  not 
turn  out,  we  may  remain  as  we  are. 

Gentlemen,  I  now  yield  in  order  that  others  may  be  introduced 
to  you. 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  MEXICO. 

ON  the  4th  of  April  Mr.  Davis  reported,  from  the  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs,  a  joint  resolution  declaring 

"  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  were  unwilling  by  si 
lence  to  leave  the  nations  of  the  world  under  the  impression  that 
they  are  indifferent  spectators  of  the  deplorable  events*  now  trans 
piring  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico ;  and  that  they  therefore  think 
fit  to  declare  that  it  does  not  accord  with  the  policy  of  the  United 
States  to  acknowledge  any  monarchical  government  erected  on 
the  ruins  of  any  republican  government  under  the  auspices  of  any 
European  power." 

In  supporting  this  resolution,  Mr.  Davis  said : 

"  We  inaugurate  another  policy  than  that  which  characterized 
the  Democratic  party  ere  the  power  passed  from  beneath  their 
feet.  The  Democratic  policy  in  dealing  with  our  Republican  breth 
ren  in  South  America  and  in  Mexico  has  been  that  of  the  wolf  to 
the  lamb.  Their  growl  was  to  frighten  foreign  wolves  from  the 
prey  they  marked  for  their  own ;  they  hectored,  bullied,  and  plun 
dered  them,  without  even  stretching  out  the  hand  of  republican 
sympathy  to  appease  their  dissensions  or  consolidate  their  power. 
I  suppose  the  treaty  made  by  Mr.  M'Lane  was  intended  to  smooth 
the  way  for  the  intrusion  into  Mexico  of  the  Southern  interests, 
now  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States.  It  afforded  Southern 
men  the  opportunity,  after  breaking  away  from  the  Union,  to  fast 
en  themselves  upon  Mexico.  The  provisions  of  that  treaty  se 
cured  such  a  right  of  interference  and  intermeddling  in  the  affairs 
of  Mexico  as  would  have  been  contrary  to  the  policy  of  this  gov 
ernment  to  exercise,  unless  it  was  with  the  farther  purpose  of  re 
ducing  Mexico  to  the  condition  of  a  province.  If  my  friend  from 
Ohio  had  expressed  his  regret  at  the  failure  of  the  ratification  by 

*  Alluding  to  the  war  between  Juarez,  the  constitutional  President,  nnd  the 
French,  intervening  to  place  and  maintain  there  the  Archduke  Maximilian  under 
the  title  of  emperor. 


396  TIIE  EMPIRE  OF  MEXICO. 

the  Senate  of  the  treaty  negotiated  by  Mr.  Corwin,  granting  pecun 
iary  aid  to  the  government  of  Mexico,  which  would,  in  all  proba 
bility,  have  prevented  this  European  intervention,  I  should  have 
heartily  agreed  with  him. 

"But,  sir,  that  time  has  already  passed.  The  war  is  going  on, 
and  we  wish,  before  another  usurper  has  placed  his  foot  upon 
Mexican  soil,  to  let  him  understand,  whether  he  be  of  the  house 
of  Austria,  or  of  the  family  which  for  the  present  disposes  of  the 
forces  of  France — both  the  well-known  enemies  of  republican  gov 
ernment,  and  the  last  now  making  war  to  overturn  the  republican 
government  of  Mexico  and  establish  upon  its  ruins  a  monarchical 
government — that  that  government  will  not  be  recognized  by  us. 

"Our  policy  is  very  different  from  the  Democratic  policy.  We 
wish  to  cultivate  friendship  with  our  republican  brethren  of  Mex 
ico  and  South  America,  to  aid  in  consolidating  republican  princi 
ples,  to  retain  popular  government  in  all  this  continent  from  the 
fangs  of  monarchical  or  aristocratic  power,  and  to  lead  the  sister 
hood  of  American  republics  in  the  paths  of  peace,  prosperity,  and 
power." 

The  resolution  was  passed  unanimously.  Mr.  Davis  afterward  moved 
(May  23)  that  the  President  be  requested  to  communicate  to  the  House 
any  explanation  given  by  the  government  to  the  French  government  re 
specting  the  sense  and  bearing  of  the  above  joint  resolution  ;  and  the  cor 
respondence  of  the  Secretary  of  State  with  the  United  States  minister 
in  Paris  in  relation  thereto  was  communicated,  by  which  it  appeared  that 
the  Secretary  had  rightly  stated  the  effect  of  such  joint  resolution,  acted 
on  by  the  House  only,  not  having  passed  the  Senate,  and  not  having 
received  the  sanction  of  the  President. 


EXPULSION  OF  MR  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

ON  the  9th  of  April  the  Speaker  offered  a  resolution  for  the  expulsion 
of  Mr.  Long,  of  Ohio,  "  for  having  openly  avowed  himself,  in  presence  of 
the  House,  in  favor  of  recognizing  the  Confederate  States,  now  in  armed 
rebellion,  and,  in  so  avowing  himself,  having  violated  his  oath  as  a  mem 
ber  of  this  House,  that  he  had  given  no  aid,  countenance,  counsel,  or  en 
couragement  to  persons  engaged  in  armed  hostility  to  the  United  States." 

On  the  llth  of  April,  1864,  Mr.  Davis  addressed  the  House  on  this 
resolution  in  the  following  speech : 

MR.  SPEAKER, — A  singular  disposition  has  been  manifested  to 
avoid  the  question  before  the  House.  I  desire  to  call  your  atten 
tion  to  that  question  before  I  follow  the  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  in  the  rather  irrelevant  discussion  in  which  they  have  in 
dulged. 

It  is  not  whether  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  freedom  of  opinion  is  secured  by  law,  nor  wheth 
er  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press  is  the  constitutional  right 
of  the  American  citizen,  but  whether  the  gentleman  who  delivered 
the  speech  now  in  question  is  a  fit  and  worthy  member  of  this 
House ;  not  whether,  out  of  doors,  in  his  private  capacity,  he  would 
be  entitled  to  entertain,  and  as  an  individual  to  express,  the  opin 
ions  which  he  has  uttered  here,  but  whether  as  a  legislator  charged 
to  protect  the  interests  of  the  people,  sworn  to  maintain  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  he  has  not  avowed  a  purpose  incon 
sistent  with  those  duties,  a  resolution  not  to  maintain  but  to  de 
stroy  ;  a  determination  not  to  defend  but  to  yield  up  undefended 
to  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  what  he  was  sent  here  to  pro 
tect.  That  is  the  question,  and  that  is  the  only  question  which 
has  not  been  discussed  by  the  defenders  of  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio. 

They  tell  us  words  can  not  be  the  subject  of  animadversion 
under  the  rules  of  this  House,  nor  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States !  What  becomes  of  the  resolution  declaring  the 
member  from  Maryland  [Mr.  Harris]  to  be  an  unworthy  member 


398  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LOXG,  OF  OHIO. 

of  this  House,  adopted  by  their  votes  on  Saturday  ?  What  be 
comes  of  the  solemn  adjudication  as  far  back  as  1842,  when  a 
majority  of  this  House  asserted  the  right  to  censure  Joshua  E. 
Giddings,  not  for  introducing  a  petition  to  dissolve  the  Union,  but 
for  offering  resolutions  for  the  consideration  of  this  House  declar 
ing  that  the  mutineers  of  the  Creole  were  not  responsible  for  any 
criminal  act  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  interpreted  by 
the  resolution  of  censure  into  a  justification  of  mutiny  and  murder  ? 

It  is  the  judgment  of  this  House,  and  therefore  not  necessary  to 
be  argued  by  me,  that  words  may  prove  criminality  when  they 
reveal  a  criminal  purpose ;  and,  if  they  are  sufficiently  criminal, 
that  they  may  be  visited  first  by  censure,  and,  if  they  judge  it 
necessary  to  the  public  safety,  by  expulsion  from  the  House.  I 
do  not  envy  the  gentlemen  who  refused  to  expel  the  gentleman 
from  Maryland  for  language  uttered  in  the  presence  of  us  all, 
which  they  immediately  after  voted  to  declare  tended  and  was 
designed  to  give  aid  and  encouragement  to  the  public  enemies  of 
the  nation,  and  therefore  he  was  an  unworthy  member  of  the 
House.  Sir,  it  would  seem  to  have  been  the  logical  conclusion 
that,  if  he  is  an  unworthy  member  of  the  House,  he  ought  not  to 
be  suffered  to  remain  in  it,  and  that  gentlemen  who  so  thought 
would  have  so  said  on  the  first  vote  for  expulsion.  How  gentle 
men  will  reconcile  that  glaring  inconsistency  to  their  constituents ; 
how  they  who  have  declared  the  gentleman  from  Maryland  an 
unworthy  member,  but  that  he  should  remain  a  member — who 
asserted  the  right  to  punish  by  inflicting  punishment,  but  re 
fused  the  only  adequate  penalty  for  the  offense  of  which  they 
voted  him  guilty,  will  justify  themselves  in  the  face  of  their  own 
votes,  it  is  for  them  to  consider.  It  would  be  cruel  to  aggravate 
their  embarrassments  by  any  observations.  Ab  liac  scabie  tenca- 
mus  ungues. 

But  it  remains  conceded  by  the  votes  of  our  opponents  that, 
in  spite  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  spite  of  the 
conceded  freedom  of  opinion,  in  spite  of  the  conceded  freedom  of 
speech,  words  are  and  may  be  here,  not  out  of  doors,  but  here  in 
this  House,  here  upon  a  subject  before  the  House  for  considera 
tion,  here  where  every  body  has  a  right  to  express  his  views  upon 
every  measure  before  the  House,  words  are  and  have  been  ad 
judged  by  the  votes  of  our  opponents  to  be  criminal,  to  be  pun 
ishable,  and  they  have  been  punished  within  two  days. 


EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  399 

The  measure  of  judgment  is  a  matter  of  discretion.  The  Con 
stitution  says  that  with  the  consent  of  two  thirds  either  House 
may  expel  a  member ;  that  means  not  capriciously,  but  for  some 
wrong,  for  misconduct,  for  acts,  for  words,  for  purposes,  for  avow 
als  inconsistent  with  his  duty  on  this  floor,  tending  to  show  that 
he  is  not  a  safe  depositary  of  the  great  powers  of  a  representa 
tive  ;  and  the  only  constitutional  criterion  of  what  is  and  what  is 
not  adequate  cause  of  expulsion  is  the  judgment  of  two  thirds  of 
this  House. 

If  that  be  so,  the  only  farther  question  we  have  to  ask  is  wheth 
er  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  respectable  as  he  is  in  his  private  re 
lations,  respectable  as  has  been  his  conduct  in  this  House,  hon 
estly  as  his  convictions  may  be  entertained,  has  not  placed  him 
self  beyond  the  pale  of  that  protection  which  this  House  accords 
to  freedom  of  speech,  not  by  speaking  as  he  ought  not  to  have 
spoken,  but  by  avowing  himself  in  favor  of  the  destruction  of  the 
nation. 

Now,  what  is  the  charge  against  him  ?  That  his  judgment  is 
that  there  are  but  two  alternatives :  one,  the  extermination  of  the 
enemies  of  the  United  States,  and  the  other  the  destruction  of  the 
United  States  itself,  which  he  puts  in  the  form  of  a  recognition  of 
the  Southern  States  as  an  independent  government.  And,  not 
resting  on  that  mere  declaration  of  opinion  and  the  alternative 
resting  in  his  own  mind,  he  goes  farther,  and  says  that  of  the  two 
he  preferred  the  latter.  That  means,  "I,  here  a  representative, 
charged  and  sworn  to  the  extent  of  my  whole  influence  in  the  leg 
islation  of  this  House  to  protect  and  maintain  the  integrity  of 
the  nation,  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
war,  when  the  existence  of  the  nation  is  at  stake,  that,  rather  than 
exterminate  the  enemies  of  the  nation,  I  will  exterminate  the  na 
tion."  He  proclaims  himself  the  friend  of  the  enemies  of  the  na 
tion,  and  an  enemy  himself  of  the  United  States.  He  avows  it 
his  purpose  to  destroy  it  at  the  first  opportunity  to  the  extent  of 
his  vote.  The  rebel  chiefs  proclaim  independence  or  extermina 
tion  the  only  alternatives.  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  declares 
extermination  or  independence  the  only  alternatives.  The  rebel 
chiefs  prefer  the  recognition  of  their  independence  to  their  exterm 
ination.  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  avows  himself  for  recogni 
tion  and  against  extermination ;  and  recognition  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  means  the  dissolution  of  the  United  States.  The 


400  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

Constitution  proclaims  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union ;  and  that 
Constitution  recognizes  no  dissolution,  no  end  of  its  existence. 
Sworn  to  maintain  that  Constitution,  he  now  says  :  "In  violation 
of  a  solemn  oath,  in  spite  of  the  duty  I  am  sent  here  to  discharge, 
rather  than  maintain  it  to  the  extent  of  exterminating  its  enemies, 
I  will  destroy  it." 

Now,  that  is  the  case  stated  in  plain  language.  It  has  not  been 
stated  here  before  to-day.  And  the  question  which  we  are  bound 
as  gentlemen  and  as  legislators  to  determine  is  whether  a  gentle 
man,  acknowledged  to  be  respectable,  believed  to  be  sincere,  en 
tertaining  and  avowing  purposes  which  do  not  differ  from  those 
of  the  chief  of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  or  of  the  men  in  armed  ar 
ray  beyond  the  Potomac  bent  on  ejecting  us  from  this  hall,  is  the 
fit  companion  of  gentlemen  here,  a  fit  depositary  of  his  constitu 
ents'  vote,  a  safe  person  to  be  intrusted  here  with  the  secrets  of 
the  United  States,  a  worthy  guardian  of  the  existence  of  the  re 
public.  Are  we  to  be  seriously  told  that  the  freedom  of  speech 
screens  a  traitor  because  he  puts  his  treasonable  purposes  in 
words  ?  Does  the  Constitution  secure  the  right  of  our  avowed 
enemies  to  vote  in  this  hall?  May  a  man  impudently  declare 
that  his  purpose  here  is  so  to  vote  as  to  promote  the  success  of 
the  rebellion,  to  embarrass  and  paralyze  the  government  in  its 
suppression,  to  secure  its  triumph  and  our  overthrow,  to  bring  the 
armed  enemy  to  Washington,  or  arrest  our  army  lest  it  exterm 
inate  that  enemy  ?  Then  why  do  not  the  Congress  at  Richmond 
adjourn  to  Washington,  push  us  from  our  stools,  and  by  parlia 
mentary  tactics,  under  the  Constitution,  arrest  the  wheels  of  gov 
ernment  ?  You  could  not  expel  them.  Sir,  that  picture  is  his 
tory — recent  history.  In  1860  that  side  of  the  House  swarmed 
with  the  avowed  enemies  of  the  republic.  One  after  one,  as  their 
stars  dropped  from  the  firmament  of  the  Union,  they  went  out, 
some  with  tears  in  their  eyes  over  the  miseries  they  were  about 
to  inflict ;  some  of  them  with  exultation  over  the  coming  calam 
ities  ;  some  of  them  with  contemptuous  lectures  to  the  members 
in  the  House ;  some  staid  behind  to  do  the  traitor's  business  in 
the  disguise  of  honest  legislators  in  both  houses  as  long  as  they 
dared.  One  disgraced  the  Senate  for  one  long  session  after  armed 
men  were  soaking  their  native  soil  with  their  blood,  and  now  he 
is  in  the  ranks  of  our  enemies. 

Are  we  to  be  told  that  gentlemen,  entertaining  not  these  opin- 


EXPULSION  OF  MK.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  401 

ions,  but  these  purposes,  resolved  to  the  extent  of  their  power  to 
paralyze  the  government,  and  only  limited  in  what  they  can  do 
by  what  it  may  be  safe  to  do,  must  be  allowed  not  merely  to  be 
members  of  the  House,  but  to  rise  and  insolently  fling  in  our  faces 
the  avowal  of  their  enmity,  and  invoke  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  order  that  they  may  stab  it  to  the  heart?  Shall 
men  rise  here  and  be  allowed  to  express,  whether  in  one  form  of 
phraseology  or  another,  as  may  best  aid  the  public  enemy,  their 
desire  for  the  triumph  of  the  rebel  cause,  and  that,  being  too  ten 
der-hearted  to  wish  that  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  may  be 
exterminated,  they  prefer  our  ruin  ?  And  is  it  to  be  said  that 
that  comes  within  the  sacred  shield  of  the  freedom  of  public  opin 
ion,  the  right  of  debate,  the  freedom  of  speech  ?  Why,  sir,  it  is 
not  opinion  that  we  complain  of;  it  is  not  liberty  of  speech  that 
we  wish  to  restrict.  On  the  contrary,  I  thank  the  gentleman 
[Mr.  Long]  for  his  speech,  for  it  revealed  an  enemy,  and  an  avow 
ed  is  a  more  respectable  than  a  concealed  foe.  He  is  more  frank 
than  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Fernando  "Wood],  who, 
with  similar  sentiments,  conceals  them.  He  is  more  manly  than 
that  gentleman  from  New  York  who  on  Saturday  rose  before  the 
House  with  a  paper  in  his  hand,  declaring  it  to  be  the. identical 
sheet  from  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  read — read  it  flaunt- 
ingly  in  the  face  of  the  House,  and  declared  that  he  concurred  in 
every  word  of  it,  and  that  if  the  House  expelled  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  it  must  expel  him  also ;  but  to-day,  frightened  by  the 
explosion  of  the  indignation  of  the  House  on  the  head  of  the  gen 
tleman  from  Maryland,  was  careful  to  say  that  he  did  not  at  all 
agree  with  the  opinions  for  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  is 
called  in  question.  Commend  me,  sir,  to  an  open  adversary.  I 
can  respect  the  one,  I  can  not  have  so  much  respect  for  the  other. 
It  is  not  for  the  freedom  of  the  avowal,  it  is  the  entertaining  the 
purpose  which  he  does  avow ;  it  is  not  that  he  violated  the  order 
of  the  House,  it  is  because  he  violates  the  law  of  the  country  by 
his  purpose  to  destroy  it,  that  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  is  ar 
raigned.  We  do  not  punish  him  for  saying  what  he  did,  we 
punish  him  for  meaning  what  he  declared  he  does  mean  to  do ; 
and  that  is  what  we  are  called  upon  to  do  by  the  highest  consid 
erations  of  public  policy,  the  plainest  dictates  of  patriotic  duty. 

Oh !  but  we  are  told  that  it  touches  the  rights  of  his  constitu 
ents.     Let  his  constituents  have  an  opportunity  to  pass  upon  that 

Cc 


402  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

after  this  declaration  of  purpose.  But  we  must  have  mutual  con 
sideration  for  each  other!  Why,  certainly,  sir.  But  how  far? 
Is  there  no  end  to  patience  ?  Is  there  no  avowal  showing  crim 
inal  intent  which  wisdom  requires  we  should  guard  against  be 
forehand  ?  What  do  you  suppose  would  be  the  fate  of  a  man  sit 
ting  in  the  Capitol  at  Kichmond  who  should  arise  there  and  pro 
pose  to  recognize  the  supremacy  of  the  United  States  ?  Do  you 
suppose  that  the  freedom  of  debate  which  gentlemen  have  enjoyed 
on  this  floor  would  have  been  tolerated,  even  if  desired  by  any 
body  ?  Is  it  not  certain  that  he  would  have  been  expelled  if  he 
lived  long  enough  for  the  vote  of  expulsion  to  be  taken?  Sup 
pose  that  in  the  French  Assembly,  when  the  life  of  France  was  at 
stake,  as  the  life  of  this  nation  is  now  at  stake,  and  when  heroic 
men  were  struggling  to  maintain  it,  some  one  had  arisen  and  pro 
posed  to  call  back  the  Bourbons,  and  place  the  reins  of  govern 
ment  in  their  hands — how  long  would  he  have  remained  a  mem 
ber  of  that  body  ?  Suppose  that  the  day  before  the  battle  of  Cul- 
loden,  or  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Preston  Pans,  some  Jacobite 
had  arisen  in  the  House  of  Commons  of  England  and  declared 
himself  of  the  opinion  that  the  Pretender  could  not  be  expelled 
without  the  extermination  of  the  Jacobites,  and  that  therefore  they 
should  place  him  on  the  throne  of  England  !  Do  you  think  the 
traditional  liberty  of  speech  in  England  would  have  saved  him 
from  summary  expulsion  ?  Do  you  think  there  is  any  law  in 
England  that  could  have  stood  between  him  and,  not  expulsion, 
but  death  ?  Would  not  the  act  have  been  considered  a  crime, 
and  the  declaration  of  it  in  Parliament  have  been  considered  an 
aggravation  of  the  crime,  demanding  his  expulsion  ?  Would  not 
the  vote  of  that  body  have  been  instantaneous,  and  his  execution 
swifter  than  that  vote  ? 

Are  we  to  be  told  here  that  men  are  to  rise  in  this  hall,  where 
the  guns  of  the  impending  battle  will  echo  in  our  ears,  when  we 
sit  here  only  because  we  have  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
bayonets  between  us  and  the  enemy ;  when  Washington  is  a  great 
camp,  the  centre  of  thirty  miles  of  fortifications  stretching  around 
us  for  our  protection  ;  are  we  to  be  told  that  here,  within  this  cita 
del  of  the  nation,  an  enemy  may  beckon  with  his  hand  to  the 
armed  foe,  assuring  him  of  friends  within  the  people's  hall,  at  the 
very  centre  of  power,  and  we  can  not  expel  him  ? 

Sir,  let  me  say  to  this  House  that  if  it  were  a  constitutional  right 


EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  403 

so  to  speak,  in  my  judgment  this  is  one  of  those  cases  which  so  far 
transcends  the  ordinary  rules  of  law,  one  of  those  cases  which 
carries  us  so  near  to  the  original  right  of  self-defense,  one  of  those 
cases  which  appeals  so  directly  to  the  inalienable  right  of  self-pro 
tection,  that  without  law  and  in  spite  of  law  the  safety  of  the  peo 
ple  requires  his  expulsion,  and  I  would  be  one  to  do  it.  But,  sir, 
I  do  not  think  the  Constitution  does  confer  the  right  so  to  speak. 
I  think  we  are  within  the  limits  of  written  law  which  the  wisdom 
of  our  forefathers  gave  us  with  which  to  protect  ourselves  in  ev 
ery  emergency,  and  this  among  others ;  and  the  only  question  is 
whether  the  patriotism  of  this  House  goes  to  the  extent  of  the  two 
thirds  of  its  members  required  to  rid  it  of  the  presence  of  an 
avowed  public  enemy.  That,  and  that  alone,  is  the  question. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  told  that  this  is  a  question  of  opinion. 
If  it  be,  it  is  one  of  those  questions  of  opinion  that  nobody  in  this 
country  has  a  right  to  be  on  more  than  one  side  of.  On  one  side 
is  patriotism,  duty,  and  an  oath.  On  the  other  is  treason,  crime, 
and  perjury.  Is  it  our  duty,  for  the  protection  of  a  man  in  his 
opinion,  to  allow  him  to  destroy  the  nation  we  are  trying  to  de 
fend  ?  Where,  in  the  record  of  nations,  do  you  find  an  illustra 
tion  of  that  position  ?  By  what  examples  in  history  do  you  de 
fend  it  ?  By  what  precedent  of  statesmanship  ?  The  great  name 
of  Chatham  has  often,  in  this  debate,  been  invoked  and  desecrated 
to  cover  this  avowal  of  preference  for  the  enemy  over  the  country. 
His  example  is  wretchedly  misunderstood.  Doubtless  his  voice 
was  lifted  in  warning  tones  against  taxation  without  our  consent, 
and  still  fiercer  against  war  to  enforce  it.  His  example  might  be 
pleaded  for  moderation  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  our  Southern 
fellow-citizens ;  but  they  have  not  been  violated ;  but  never,  nev 
er  to  sanction  a  division  of  the  republic.  His  example  is  the  bit 
terest  reproach  to  those  who  claim  its  protection.  After  years  of 
war  unjustly  begun  and  weakly  waged,  when  exhausted  England 
sank  before  the  combined  arms  of  America  and  France,  and  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  rose  in  the  House  of  Lords  to  move  for  peace 
with  America,  the  patriotic  soul  of  Chatham  was  stirred  within 
him  at  the  thought  of  the  humiliation  and  division  of  that  em 
pire  whose  limits  he  had  expanded  and  whose  name  he  had  dec 
orated  ;  and,  frail  and  dying,  his  legs  swathed  in  flannel,  his  crutch 
in  his  hand,  he  was  borne  to  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  arms  of 
his  great  son  to  lift  his  last  voice  in  execration  of  the  folly  which 


404  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

had  brought  England  to  such  humiliation,  and  to  enter  his  dying 
protest  against  the  recognition  of  American  independence,  already 
secured  in  fact  by  the  sword.  His  English  heart  had  no  fear  of 
exterminating  the  enemies  of  England  in  the  holy  work  of  main 
taining  the  integrity  of  her  empire.  Sir,  I  accept  the  example, 
and  I  commend  it  to  the  consideration  of  the  patriotic  gentlemen 
on  the  other  side  of  the  House.  I  beg  them  to  read  a  little  farther 
than  they  seem  to  have  done  the  history  of  the  English  statesman. 
Freedom  of  opinion !  Surely,  sir,  opinion  is  the  breath  of  our  na 
tion.  It  is  the  measure  of  every  right,  the  guarantee  of  every 
privilege,  the  protection  of  every  blessing.  It  is  opinion  which 
creates  our  rulers.  It  is  opinion  that  nerves  or  palsies  their  arm. 
It  is  opinion  which  casts  down  the  proud  and  elevates  the  hum 
ble.  Its  fluctuations  are  the  rise  and  fall  of  parties  ;  its  currents 
bear  the  nation  on  to  prosperity  or  ruin.  Its  free  play  is  the  con 
dition  of  its  purity.  It  is  like  the  ocean,  whose  tides  rise  and  fall 
day  by  day  at  the  fickle  bidding  of  the  moon ;  yet  it  is  the  great 
scientific  level  from  which  every  height  is  measured — the  horizon 
to  which  astronomers  refer  the  motion  of  the  stars.  But,  like  the 
ocean,  it  has  depths  whose  eternal  stillness  is  the  condition  of  its 
stability.  Those  depths  of  opinion  are  not  free,  and  it  is  they  that 
are  touched  by  the  words  which  have  so  moved  the  House.  Men 
must  not  commit  treason,  and  say  its  guilt  is  matter  of  opinion 
and  its  punishment  a  violation  of  its  freedom.  Men  can  not  swear 
to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  nation  and  avow  their  intention 
to  destroy  it,  and  cover  that  double  crime  by  the  freedom  of 
speech.  TJiat  is  to  break  up  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  on 
which  all  government  is  borne,  and  to  pour  its  flood  in  revolu 
tionary  ruin  over  the  land.  To  punish  that  is  not  a  violation  of 
the  freedom  of  opinion  or  its  expression.  It  is  to  protect  its  nor 
mal  ebb  and  flow,  its  free  and  healthy  fluctuations,  that  we  desire 
to  relieve  it  from  the  opprobrium  of  being  confounded  with  the 
declaration  of  treasonable  purposes  here  in  the  high  and  solemn 
assemblage  of  the  nation. 

The  free  expression  of  opinion  !  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  how 
the  opinions  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  Horace  Greeley,  or  Wendell 
Phillips,  or  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.Schenck],  or  Mr.  Chase, 
if  truly  quoted,  and  equally  criminal  with  those  now  arraigned, 
can  extenuate  their  guilt  or  shield  their  author  from  the  indigna 
tion  of  the  House.  Their  guilt  is  not  his  innocence.  If  he  imi- 


EXPULSION  OF  ME.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  405 

tated  their  guilt,  let  him  follow  their  repentance.  The  time  which 
they  have  devoted  to  atoning  for  error  by  patriotic  services  he 
has  dedicated  to  indurating  his  error  and  accomplishing  his  unpa 
triotic  purposes.  But  I  am  not  concerned  to  vindicate  in  them 
what  I  condemn  in  him.  I  execrate  the  avowal  equally  in  every 
mouth ;  and  if  their  guilt  is  beyond  my  judgment,  that  of  the  gen 
tleman  from  Ohio  is  not.  I  can  well  understand  how  such  exam 
ples  may  serve  to  screen  the  Democratic  party,  or  to  delude  an 
ill-informed  crowd,  and  teach  them  that  treason  is  error  of  opinion 
and  not  a  crime,  but  they  can  not  be  successfully  urged  here  be 
fore  the  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  to  exculpate 
the  gentleman  from  Ohio;  nor  even,  sir,  can  it  vindicate  the 
Democratic  party  from  the  charge  of  more  sympathy  with  the 
enemies  of  the  country  than  with  the  country  itself.  The  people 
will  laugh  at  this  attempt  to  impeach  the  loyalty  of  the  friends  of 
the  administration.  They  will  see  in  this  zealous  defense  of  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio  only  another  proof  of  Democratic  sympathy 
with  his  views  and  purposes,  hitherto  invariably  manifested  wher 
ever  they  have  been  in  power.  Where  have  they  had  power  that 
they  have  not  exhibited  their  sympathy  with  the  enemies  of  the 
republic?  I  admit  there  are  honorable  exceptions.  I  admit  there 
are  cases  of  honest  delusion.  I  suppose  there  are  cases  of  uncon 
scious  sympathy.  I  can  not  doubt  the  prevalence  of  a  criminal 
interest  in  the  triumph  of  the  rebels.  I  shall  not  discriminate  one 
from  the  other.  I  speak  of  the  party  and  its  conduct.  Where, 
since  the  war  broke  out,  from  the  time  that  James  Buchanan  dis 
graced  the  American  name  by  his  message  declaring,  as  gentle 
men  on  that  side  of  the  House  declare  now,  that  this  war  is  waged 
in  violation  of  the  Constitution,  that  there  is  no  power  to  coerce  a 
sovereign  State,  down  to  this  day,  is  there  a  Democratic  governor  or 
Legislature  which,  until  warned  by  the  indignant  voice  of  the  peo 
ple,  has  not  tried  to  embarrass  and  discredit  the  government,  and 
to  give  aid  and  encouragement  to  its  enemies  ?  The  disavowals 
of  individuals  can  not  extenuate  the  conduct  of  Legislatures  and 
governors.  The  prudence  or  cunning  of  caucuses  or  Congress 
men,  since  the  chastisement  of  1863,  can  not  make  the  people  for 
get  the  conduct  which  provoked  it.  Will  they  ever  forget  the 
Legislature  of  Indiana  and  its  votes  on  the  resolutions  for  armis 
tice  and  peace,  which  swarmed  before  it ;  or  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois  and  the  bill  to  strip  the  governor  of  his  just  military  au- 


406  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

thority ;  and  the  resolutions  for  an  armistice  and  a  Convention  at 
Louisville  of  Western  and  rebel  States,  to  dictate  terms  to  the 
United  States,  actually  adopted,  I  think,  by  one  House;  or  the 
New  Jersey  Legislature,  which  sent  Wall  of  Fort  Lafayette  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  was  ready  to  adopt  peace  resolutions 
but  for  an  accidental  adjournment  which  enabled  the  members  to 
gather  the  whisperings  of  their  indignant  constituents?  How 
have  they  expressed  their  sympathies  on  the  side  of  the  United 
States  unless  by  attempting  to  array  the  State  authorities  against 
the  United  States,  to  excite  the  prejudices  of  the  people  against 
the  necessary  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus,  to  represent  the 
assertion  of  the  supremacy  of  the  United  States  courts  and  officers 
in  the  enforcement  of  United  States  laws,  as  invasions  of  the  rights 

o 

of  the  States  ?  What  Democrat  in  Pennsylvania  did  not  vote  for 
Woodward?  What  Democrat  in  New  York  did  not  vote  for 
Horatio  Seymour  ?  What  Democrat  in  Connecticut  did  not  vote 
for  Seymour  of  Connecticut  ?  What  Democrat  in  Ohio  did  not 
vote  for  Yallandigham  ?  It  is  vain  to  attempt  to  conceal  it.  The 
history  of  that  party  during  the  war  proves  the  declaration  made 
on  this  floor  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Democratic  party  for 
the  war :  its  elastic  mantle  covers  equally  those  who,  like  the  gen 
tleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Kernan],  have  a  love  for  the  Union, 
and  fail  when  he  comes  to  vote  on  it,  and  those  who,  like  the  gen 
tleman  from  Maryland  [Mr.  Harris],  glory  in  the  failure  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States  to  conquer  the  States  in  rebellion. 

The  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Kernan]  who  last  spoke, 
and  whose  earnest  tones  all  must  have  felt,  declared  himself  ready 
to  do  all  in  his  power  to  suppress  the  insurrection,  and  yet  he 
failed  to  vote  for  the  Conscription  Bill,  the  indispensable  condition 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  That  is  the  type  of  the  War  Dem 
ocrat  !  Yery  earnest  in  vague  generalities  for  the  War,  equally 
earnest  in  decrying  the  policy  of  the  administration,  but,  having 
exhausted  their  earnestness  on  those  topics,  are  so  unable  on  any 
practical  measure  to  tear  themselves  away  from  party  association, 
so  penetrated  with  valetudinarian  views  or  perverse  judgments  on 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  that  their  aid  is  more  em 
barrassing  than  their  opposition. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  it  be  said  that  a  time  may  come  when  the 
question  of  recognizing  the  Southern  Confederacy  will  have  to  be 
answered,  I  admit  it ;  and  it  is  answering  the  strongest  and  the 


EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  407 

extremest  case  that  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  can  present.  I 
admit  it.  When  a  Democrat  shall  darken  the  White  House  and 
the  land ;  when  a  Democratic  majority  here  shall  proclaim  that 
freedom  of  speech  secures  impunity  to  treason,  and  declare  recog 
nition  better  than  extermination  of  traitors  ;  when  Yallandigham 
shall  be  Governor  of  Ohio,  and  Bright  Governor  of  Indiana,  and 
Woodward  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Seymour  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  and  Wall  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  gentle 
man  from  New  York  city  [Mr.  Wood]  sit  in  Seymour's  seat,  and 
thus,  possessed  of  power  over  the  great  centre  of  the  country,  they 
shall  do  what  they  attempted  in  vain  before  in  the  midst  of  rebel 
triumphs  —  array  the  authorities  of  the  States  against  those  of 
the  United  States  ;  oppose  the  militia  to  the  army  of  the  United 
States;  invoke  the  habeas  corpus  to  discharge  confined  traitors; 
deny  to  the  government  the  benefit  of  the  laws  of  war,  lest  it  ex 
terminate  its  enemies ;  when  the  Democrats,  as  in  the  fall  of  1862, 
shall  again,  with  more  permanent  success,  persuade  the  people  of 
the  country  that  the  war  should  not  be  waged  till  the  integrity  of 
the  territory  of  the  Union  is  restored,  cost  what  it  might ;  that 
such  a  war  violates  the  spirit  of  free  institutions,  which  those  who 
advocate  it  wish  to  overthrow ;  that  it  should  stop,  for  their  bene 
fit,  somewhere  this  side  of  absolute  triumph,  lest  there  be  no  room 
for  a  compromise ;  when  gentlemen  of  that  party  in  New  York 
shall  again,  as  in  November,  1862,  hold  illegal  and  criminal  nego 
tiations  with  Lord  Lyons,  avow  their  purposes  to  him,  the  repre 
sentative  of  a  foreign  and  unfriendly  power,  and  urge  him  to  ar 
range  the  time  of  proffering  mediation  with  a  view  to  their  pos 
session  of  power  and  their  preparation  of  the  minds  of  the  people 
to  receive  suggestions  from  abroad ;  when  mediation  shall  appear, 
by  the  event,  to  be  the  first  step  toward  foreign  intervention,  swift 
ly  and  surely  followed  by  foreign  armed  enemies  upon  our  shores 
to  join  the  domestic  enemies ;  when  the  war  in  the  cars  shall  be 
gin,  which  was  menaced  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  and  the 
friends  of  Seymour  shall  make  the  streets  of  New  York  run  with 
blood  on  the  eve  of  another  Gettysburg  less  damaging  to  their 
hopes;  when  M'Clellan  and  Fitz  John  Porter  shall  have  again 
brought  the  rebel  armies  within  sight  of  Washington  City,  and 
the  successor  of  James  Buchanan  shall  withdraw  our  armies  from 
the  unconstitutional  invasion  of  Virginia  to  the  north  of  the  Poto 
mac  ;  when  exultant  rebels  shall  sweep  over  the  fortifications,  and 


408  EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO. 

their  bomb-shells  shall  crash  against  the  dome  of  the  Capitol ; 
when  thousands  throughout  Pennsylvania  shall  seek  refuge  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  from  the  rebel  invasion,  cheered  and  wel 
comed  by  the  opponents  of  extermination ;  when  the  people,  ex 
hausted  by  taxation,  weary  of  sacrifices,  drained  of  blood,  betray 
ed  by  their  rulers,  deluded  by  demagogues  into  believing  that 
peace  is  the  way  to  union  and  submission  the  path  to  victory, 
shall  throw  down  their  arms  before  the  advancing  foe ;  when  vast 
chasms  across  every  State"  shall  make  apparent  to  every  eye,  when 
too  late  to  remedy  it,  that  division  from  the  South  is  anarchy  at 
the  North,  and  that  peace  without  union  is  the  end  of  the  repub 
lic — THEN  the  independence  of  the  South  will  be  an  accomplished 
fact,  and  gentlemen  may,  without  treason  to  the  dead  republic, 
rise  in  this  migratory  House,  wherever  it  may  then  be  in  Amer 
ica,  and  declare  themselves  for  recognizing  their  masters  at  the 
South  rather  than  exterminating  them !  Until  that  day,  in  the 
name  of  the  American  nation ;  in  the  name  of  every  house  in  the 
land  where  there  is  one  dead  for  the  holy  cause;  in  the  name  of 
those  who  stand  before  us  in  the  ranks  of  battle ;  in  the  name  of 
the  liberty  our  ancestors  have  confided  to  us,  I  devote  to  eternal 
execration  the  name  of  him  who  shall  propose  to  destroy  this 
blessed  land  rather  than  its  enemies. 

But,  until  that  time  arrive,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  American 
people  that  there  shall  be  no  compromise ;  that  ruin  to  ourselves 
or  ruin  to  the  Southern  rebels  are  the  only  alternatives.  It  is  only 
by  resolutions  of  this  kind  that  nations  can  rise  above  great  dan 
gers  and  overcome  them  in  crises  like  this.  It  was  only  by  turn 
ing  France  into  a  camp,  resolved  that  Europe  might  exterminate, 
but  should  not  subjugate  her,  that  France  is  the  leading  empire 
of  Europe  to-day.  It  is  by  such  a  resolve  that  the  American  peo 
ple,  coercing  a  reluctant  government  to  draw  the  sword  and  stake 
the  national  existence  on  the  integrity  of  the  republic,  are  now 
any  thing  but  the  fragments  of  a  nation  before  the  world,  the  scorn 
and  hiss  of  every  petty  tyrant.  It  is  because  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  rising  to  the  height  of  the  occasion,  dedicated  this 
generation  to  the  sword,  and  pouring  out  the  blood  of  their  chil 
dren  as  of  no  account,  and  avowing  before  high  Heaven  that  there 
should  be  no  end  to  this  conflict  but  ruin  absolute  or  absolute  tri 
umph,  that  we  now  are  what  we  are ;  that  the  banner  of  the  re 
public,  still  pointing  onward,  floats  proudly  in  the  face  of  the  ene- 


EXPULSION  OF  MR.  LONG,  OF  OHIO.  409 

my ;  that  vast  regions  are  reduced  to  obedience  to  the  laws,  and 
that  a  great  host  in  armed  array  now  presses  with  steady  step 
into  the  dark  regions  of  the  rebellion.  It  is  only  by  the  earnest 
and  abiding  resolution  of  the  people  that,  whatever  shall  be  our 
fate,  it  shall  be  grand  as  the  American  nation,  worthy  of  that  re 
public  which  first  trod  the  path  of  empire,  and  made  no  peace  but 
under  the  banners  of  victory,  that  the  American  people  will  sur 
vive  in  history.  And  that  will  save  us.  We  shall  succeed  and 
not  fail.  I  have  an  abiding  confidence  in  the  firmness,  the  pa 
tience,  the  endurance  of  the  American  people ;  and,  having  vowed 
to  stand  in  history  on  the  great  resolve  to  accept  of  nothing  but 
victory  or  ruin,  victory  is  ours.  And  if  with  such  heroic  resolve 
we  fall,  we  fall  with  honor,  and  transmit  the  name  of  liberty  com 
mitted  to  our  keeping  untarnished,  to  go  down  to  future  genera 
tions.  The  historian  of  our  decline  and  fall,  contemplating  the 
ruins  of  the  last  great  republic,  and  drawing  from  its  fate  lessons 
of  wisdom  on  the  waywardness  of  men,  shall  drop  a  tear  as  he  re 
cords  with  sorrow  the  vain  heroism  of  that  people  who  dedicated 
and  sacrificed  themselves  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  by  their 
example  will  keep  alive  her  worship  in  the  hearts  of  men  till  hap 
pier  generations  shall  learn  to  walk  in  her  paths.  Yes,  sir,  if  we 
must  fall,  let  our  last  hours  be  stained  by  no  weakness ;  if  we 
must  fall,  let  us  stand  amid  the  crash  of  the  falling  republic  and 
be  buried  in  its  ruins,  so  that  history  may  take  note  that  men 
lived  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  worthy  of  a  better 
fate,  but  chastised  by  God  for  the  sins  of  their  forefathers.  Let 
the  ruins  of  the  republic  remain  to  testify  to  the  latest  generations 
our  greatness  and  our  heroism.  And  let  Liberty,  crownless  and 
childless,  sit  upon  these  ruins,  crying  aloud  in  a  sad  wail  to  the 
nations  of  the  world,  "I  nursed  and  brought  up  children,  and 
they  have  rebelled  against  me."  (Great  applause  on  the  floor 
and  in  the  galleries.) 


THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL. 

ON  the  1st  of  July  Mr.  Davis  moved  to  concur  in  an  amendment  to 
the  Enrollment  Bill,  which  provided — 1,  that  no  exemption  should  be  at 
tainable  by  payment  of  commutation-money ;  2,  that  the  enrolled  should 
be  divided  into  two  classes,  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and ' 
from  twenty-five  to  forty ;  3,  that  during  the  rebellion  250,000  men 
should  be  drafted  from  the  first  class,  organized  and  drilled  as  a  corps  de 
reserve,  and  to  supply  deficiencies  ;  4,  that  all  required  beyond  that  in  any 
one  year  should  be  from  the  second  class ;  5,  that  volunteers,  with  three 
hundred  dollars  bounty,  should  first  be  called  for;  6,  that  every  drafted 
man  having  those  dependent  on  him,  and  not  having  three  hundred  dol 
lars  a  year  income,  should  be  allowed  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars  per 
month  for  such  dependents ;  and  7,  that  a  draft  might  be  had  in  the  re 
bellious  States,  as  occupied,  and  volunteers  procured  there  should  be 
credited  to  the  State  procuring  them. 

Mr.  Davis  proceeded  to  explain  his  views  on  these  points  as  follows : 

MR.  SPEAKER, — Illness  and  its  consequences  have  deprived  me 
of  the  opportunity  of  assisting  the  deliberations  of  the  House  on 
this  topic  till  this  time,  when  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any 
thing  I  may  say  shall  at  all  influence  the  result.  But  I  beg  that 
I  may  be  allowed  to  have  their  attention  for  a  few  moments  to 
explain  the  propositions  which  I  have  offered,  and  which  embody, 
in  the  shape  of  a  bill,  what  I  think  the  exigencies  of  the  time  de 
mand. 

I  am  not  under  any  delusion  respecting  the  fate  of  the  propo 
sition.  /  Icnoio  that  the  amendment  is  not  likely  to  receive  the  vote  of 
a  majority  of  the  House.  I  despair  of  seeing  the  House  rise  to 
the  height  of  the  occasion,  and  show  that  degree  of  energy  which 
the  crisis  demands.  I  do  not  presume  to  put  my  judgment  against 
theirs ;  all  I  desire  is,  that  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  spread 
ing  before  the  country  briefly  what  I  think  the  great  cause  of  the 
nation  demands  at  our  hands,  and  leave  it  to  the  future  and  events 
to  decide  who  is  right. 

We  want  men,  not  money.    We  want  men  to  bear  arms.    What- 


THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL. 

ever  stands  in  the  way  of  getting  men  is  striking  directly  at  the 
existence  of  the  republic,  and  therefore  not  a  subject  for  consid 
eration  touching  its  political  expediency.  To  allow  men  to  buy 
by  money  exemption  from  personal  military  service,  is  to  place 
money  in  the  hands  of  the  government,  and  not  men.  To  com 
mute  service  for  money  is  to  throw  upon  that  class  of  the  com 
munity  which  can  not  raise  the  requisite  sum  the  whole  burden 
of  compulsory  military  service.  No  democratic  government  can 
defend  any  such  provision. 

It  is  new  in  the  history  of  military  organization.  No  aristo 
cratic  or  despotic  country  has  ever  ventured  to  attempt  it,  and 
those  who  undertake  to  defend  it  upon  principle,  reason  upon 
ground  I  can  not  understand.  It  allows  one  man  to  pay  his  ob 
ligations  to  the  republic  in  money,  and  requires  another  to  pay  it 
in  blood. 

Therefore,  the  first  provision  of  my  amendment  prohibits  any 
commutation  for  personal  service.  It  leaves  open  the  right,  which 
is  secure  in  every  compulsory  military  organization  in  the  world, 
Jo  furnish  a  substitute,  which  gives  the  government,  at  least,  the 
requisite  ability  to  meet  and  repel  the  public  enemy. 

The  Senate  bill  is  fatally  defective,  though  it  repeals  the  com 
mutation  clause,  in  limiting  the  draft  to  one  year.  That  pushes 
a  mob  of  raw  recruits  against  veteran  corps  to  encounter  inevit 
able  defeat,  and  shed  useless  blood. 

The  opposition  to  a  vigorous  draft  is  wholly  incomprehensible. 
It  is  the  republican,  and  the  only  republican  mode  of  raising  an 
army.  The  Eoman  republic  placed  her  youth  liable  to  military 
service  in  the  Campus  Martius,  and  the  consul  selected  at  will 
whom  he  chose. 

The  French  republic  saved  the  existence  of  the  nation,  and  the 
principles  of  republican  liberty,  by  the  law  of  conscription. 

And  it  has  been  the  law  of  the  American  republic  from  the  ad 
ministration  of  President  Washington,  and  the -law  I  propose 
merely  adds  vigor  to  that  system. 

The  next  provision  of  my  amendment  relates  to  the  classifica 
tion  of  the  military  population.  No  civilized  nation  includes  in 
one  draft  all  the  men  from  eighteen  or  twenty  years  of  age  to 
forty-five  ye^rs  of  age.  There  is  no  inequality  in  that.  The  rule 
of  all  military  powers  is  to  make  the  army  to  consist  of,  and  cause 
it  to  be  drawn  from  the  young  men  of  the  country.  The  men 


412  THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL. 

under  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years  of  age,  before  they  become 
involved  in  the  responsibilities  of  life,  before  in  a  large  proportion 
they  are  married,  before  families  have  accumulated  around  them, 
before  they  become  entangled  in  the  business  occupations  of  life, 
before  large  masses  of  workmen  and  great  capitals  are  dependent 
upon  their  personal  attention  and  their  capacity  to  manage  busi 
ness,  every  military  nation  makes  that  the  first  and  preferred 
source  from  which  to  recruit  its  army.  Older  men,  having  passed 
that  period  of  liability  to  active  military  service,  form  the  na 
tional  guard,  or  a  reserve  for  great  emergencies.  I  therefore 
have  provided,  in  the  second  section  of  the  bill,  that  the  military 
population  of  the  United  States  shall  be  divided  into  two  classes, 
the  first  to  consist  of  the  men  between  eighteen  and  twenty-five, 
and  the  second  to  consist  of  those  between  twenty -five  and  forty- 
five. 

The  next  thing  we  want  is  that  there  shall  be  a  regular,  con 
stant  levy  of  force  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  our  troops,  the 
casualties  of  the  service,  the  expiration  of  terms  of  enlistment,  and 
to  enable  the  government  to  advance  with  a  steady,  unvarying 
pressure  upon  the  enemy,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  hereafter,  as  it 
has  been  heretofore,  that  we  shall  send  an  army  into  the  field,  and 
wait  till  it  is  wasted  by  disease  and  by  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  and 
then  rest  on  our  arms  till  the  enemy  recruits  his  ranks  while  we 
are  recruiting  ours,  and  refreshed. by  repose,  and  strong  in  the 
fruits  of  their  vigorous  conscription,  they  stand  with  full  ranks  to 
dispute  our  advance. 

Therefore,  the  third  section  of  my  substitute  requires  that  every 
year  during  the  rebellion  the  President  shall  cause  to  be  levied 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  to  be  armed,  trained,  and  or 
ganized  provisionally,  and  sent  to  the  front,  or  held  as  a  reserve 
to  be  moved  as  the  President  may  direct,  according  to  the  exi 
gencies  of  the  service. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  substitute  provides  that,  if  more  men 
are  needed  for  the  service  in  any  year,  the  President  shall  cause 
the  rest  to  be  levied  from  the  men  over  twenty-five  and  under 
forty-five,  which  subjects  them  in  their  regular  turn  to  the  respons 
ibilities  and  dangers  of  war. 

Then,  as  there  is  an  earnest  feeling  all  over  the  country  in  favor 
of  procuring  them  by  volunteering  rather  than  by  draft,  the  sub 
stitute  farther  provides  that,  prior  to  and  concurrently  with  the 


THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL.  413 

draft,  until  it  shall  be  filled,  the  President  shall  call  for  and  accept 
volunteers  to  fill  the  requisition  to  the  extent  of  the  draft ;  and  he 
is  authorized  to  pay  them  $300  for  an  enlistment  for  three  years, 
and  proportionally  for  a  less  period,  to  be  designated  by  the  gov 
ernment. 

That  will  enable  the  government  to  procure,  as  far  as  volun 
teering  and  bounties  can  do  so,  the  men  it  requires.  It  imposes 
no  definite  delay  between  the  call  of  the  volunteers  and  the  en 
forcement  of  the  draft,  for  no  man  can  regulate  the  advance  of 
the  enemy ;  no  man  can  determine  the  exigencies  of  war ;  no 
man  can  say  how  long  a  time  may  elapse  before  this  capital  is  in 
danger;  before  retreating  forces  may  require  men  to  be  moved 
rapidly  to  their  support;  and  therefore  I  leave  to  the  discretion 
of  the  President  to  call  for  volunteers  as  long  before,  or  as  shortly 
before  the  draft  as  prudence  or  the  necessities  of  the  case  may 
dictate.  The  bill  has  this  other  provision,  essential  to  the  draft 
being  intolerable  to  the  poor  men,  that  men  who  have  parent  or 
wife,  child  or  sister,  dependent  on  their  labor  for  support,  shall, 
when  drafted,  be  allowed  ten  dollars  a  month  for  each  such  de 
pendent,  provided  that  the  allowance  shall  not  exceed  twenty  dol 
lars  in  any  one  month  on  account  of  any  one  conscript ;  and  the 
sum  is  payable,  not  to  the  conscript,  but  to  or  for  the  dependent 
person  for  whose  support  it  is  a  charitable  provision.  These  de 
serted  persons  must  starve,  or  go  to  the  poor-house,  or  be  honor 
ably  supported  by  the  nation  which  exacts  the  time  and  blood 
of  their  natural  protector. 

And  then  the  final  provision  is  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
government — not  merely  giving  authority — but  that  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  government  to  enforce  the  draft  in  every  district 
in  the  rebel  States  occupied  by  the  armies  of  the  republic.  A 
traitor  in  the  midst  of  loyal  men,  with  a  musket  on  his  shoulder, 
will  make  as  good  and  as  vigorous  a  soldier  as  any  man.  Na 
poleon  prostrated  Europe  at  his  feet  with  men  conscripted  from 
hostile  nations,  who  would,  if  they  could,  have  cut  the  throats  of 
the  men  by  whose  side  they  fought. 

There  is  also  another  provision  that  any  of  the  loyal  States  may 
send  agents  into  the  rebel  States,  and  there  procure  volunteers, 
which  shall  be  credited  to  the  loyal  State  procuring  them. 

I  have  also  provided  that  persons  residing  in  one  State  who 


414  THE  ENROLLMENT  BILL. 

I 

shall  enlist  or  volunteer  in  another  State  shall  be  credited  by  cal 
culating  the  draft  to  the  State  in  which  they  reside. 

Now,  sir,  in  my  judgment,  this  bill,  as  I  have  proposed  to  amend 
it,  will  give  to  the  government  the  power  to  create  an  army,  which, 
if  there  be  only  wisdom  and  energy  at  the  White  House,  will  be 
able  to  stamp  out  the  rebellion  in  another  campaign.  This  cam 
paign  can  not  accomplish  it;  we  have  not  men  enough  in  the 
field,  nor  on  the  decisive  points  of  the  field,  and  we  can  not  get 
enough  in  time  to  accomplish  that  purpose  during  this  campaign. 
What  I  desire  is  to  adopt  a  system  that  shall  keep  our  armies 
full  continually ;  that  will  enable  them  to  pour  a  constant  stream 
of  fire  upon  the  enemies  of  the  republic  till  the  last  armed  rebel 
shall  be  driven  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

MR.  MALLORY.  Did  I  understand  the  gentleman  from  Mary 
land  to  say  that  his  bill  provides  for  the  enlistment  of  soldiers  in 
the  rebel  States  by  the  loyal  States,  to  be  credited  to  the  States 
enlisting  them  ? 

MR.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  Yes,  sir,  it  allows  them  to  go  into  the 
rebel  States  and  enlist.  I  have  put  that  provision  in  in  deference 
to  the  feeling  which  exists  on  this  side  of  the  House. 

It  is  not  a  provision  which  meets  my  approval  entirely  ;  but  I 
do  not  regard  it  as  one  of  vital  importance,  and  therefore,  for  the 
purpose  of  meeting  the  wishes  of  gentlemen  on  this  side  of  the 
House,  I  have  inserted  it  as  one  of  the  provisions  of  the  bill. 

The  amendment  proposed  by  Mr.  Davis  was  rejected. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OP  THE 
BILL  FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  RE 
BELLIOUS  STATES.— 1864. 

ON  the  8th  of  June,  1864,  the  National  Union  Convention  met  at  Bal 
timore,  and  unanimously  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for  re-election  to 
the  presidency,  and  Andrew  Johjison,  of  Tennessee,  with  almost  the  same 
unanimity,  for  election  to  the  vice-presidency  of  the  United  States.  Un 
doubtedly  those  nominations,  made  without  difficulty,  and  almost  without 
opposition,  were  most  acceptable  to,*  and  were  received  by  the  American 
people  as  peculiarly  significant  of  their  firm  resolve  to  prosecute  the  war 
to  final  triumph,  to  sustain  the  administration,  to  approve  Mr.  Lincoln's 
course,  and  to  show  their  appreciation  of  the  courage,  constancy,  and  pa 
triotism  shown  by  Mr.  Johnson  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  difficulty. 

Mr.  Davis  had  opposed  the  renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  ;  he  preferred 
Mr.  Chase  or  Mr.  Wade ;  but  it  was  early  seen  in  the  Convention  upon 
what  the  feeling  of  the  country  was  resolved. 

After  these  nominations  had  been  made,  and  after  the  rebel  raid  around 
Baltimore  in  July,  and  when  it  was  known  that  the  bill  for  the  recon 
struction  of  the  rebel  States  would  not  be  approved  by  the  President,  it 
began  to  be  asserted  by  many  of  the  dissatisfied  in  the  Republican  party 
that  his  course  in  that  respect,  if  General  M'Clellan  should  be  the  nom 
inee  of  the  opposition  party  at  Chicago,  would  lose  the  States  of  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  while  it  became  doubtful  whether  he  could 
bring  out  the  party  strength  even  in  New  England.  Under  these  fears, 
if  real,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  hopes  of  inducing  or  compelling  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  certain  members  of  the  Republican  party  invited  a  con 
ference  of  the  dissatisfied  at  New  York  at  the  end  of  July.  Mr.  Davis 
took  part  in  it,  and  was  warmly  in  favor  of  such  a  change  of  plan  and 
candidate.  It  was  resolved  to  send  a  committee,  or  delegation,  to  Chi 
cago  to  confer  with  the  opposition  Convention  to  meet  there,  in  hopes 
of  inducing  the  choice  of  such  a  candidate  and  declaration  of  principles 

*  Even  Massachusetts  gave  her  vote,  on  the  first  ballot,  for  Andrew  Johnson,  who 
had  been  a  Democratic  senator  from  Tennessee  ;  and  yet  it  was  afterward  declared 
by  some  principal  men  from  that  State  that  these  nominations  could  not  be  car 
ried,  even  in  Massachusetts,  where  they  feigned  to  believe  that  General  M'Clellan, 
whose  platform  declared  the  war  a  failure,  would  gain  the  day. 


416  THE  PKESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL 

— such  a  party  platform  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  war  as  would, 
with  the  nomination  of  some  popular  leader  in  the  war,  insure  the  defeat 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  This  proceeding  failed,  through  the  resolution  of  the 
Democrats  to  submit  to  the  nomination  of  General  M'Clellan,  in  hopes 
that  his  personal  popularity  would  outweigh  the  repugnance  to  their 
platform.  This  declared  the  war  a  failure,  and  that  temporary  submis 
sion,  compromise,  and  peace  were  the  only  means  to  reunite  the  country.  / 

The  conference  of  the  dissatisfied  Republicans  had  adjourned  to  reas- 1 
semble  in  New  York  on  the  30th  of  August,  then  to  publish  an  address 
to  the  people.     But,  when  that  day  arrived,  there  were  but  two  or  three 
who  met  or  wished  to  proceed. 

Upon  these  facts  alone  can  be  explained  the  determination  to  pub 
lish,  on  the  8th  of  August,  during  the  canvass  and  after  the  nomination, 
and  while  it  was  uncertain  at  least  if  the  change  could  be  made,  to  aid 
the  plan  just  mentioned,  the  paper  known  as  the  "Wade-Davis  Mani 
festo,"  being  an  address  to  the  people,  signed  by  Messrs.  Wade  and  Davis 
(and  written  by  the  latter),  as  chairmen  respectively  of  the  Senate  and 
House  committees  on  the  reconstruction  of  the  governments  in  the  States 
lately  in  rebellion. 

The  President  had  suppressed  the  bill  for  the  reconstruction  of  those 
States,  which  was  finally  passed  within  a  few  hours  of  the  final  adjourn 
ment  of  Congress,  and  had  afterward  issued  a  proclamation  on  the  18th 
of  July,  in  which  he  declared  his  intentions  in  respect  to  those  States, 
and  his  reasons  for  not  signing  the  bill. 

Thereupon  the  following  paper  was  published  in  some  of  the  journals, 
while  the  proceedings  in  relation  to  the  change  or  defeat  of  the  candi 
dates  of  the  Republican  party  were  going  on  at  New  York. 

TO  THE  SUPPORTERS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 

We  have  read  without  surprise,  but  not  without  indignation, 
the  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  18th  of  July,  1864.  The 
supporters  of  the  administration  are  responsible  to  the  country 
for  its  conduct,  and  it  is  their  right  and  duty  to  check  the  en 
croachments  of  the  executive  on  the  authority  of  Congress,  and 
to  require  it  to  confine  itself  to  its  proper  sphere.  It  is  impossi 
ble  to  pass  in  silence  this  proclamation  without  neglecting  that 
duty,  and  having  taken  as  much  responsibility  as  many  others  in 
supporting  the  administration,  we  are  not  disposed  to  fail  in  the 
other  duty  of  supporting  the  rights  of  Congress. 

The  President  did  not  sign  the  bill  to  "guarantee  to  certain 
States,  whose  governments  have  been  usurped,  a  republican  form 
of  government,"  passed  by  the  supporters  of  his  administration, 


FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.   417 

in  both  houses  of  Congress,  after  mature  deliberation.  The  bill 
did  not  therefore  become  a  law,  and  it  is  therefore  nothing.  The 
proclamation  is  neither  an  approval  nor  a  veto  of  the  bill ;  it  is 
therefore  a  document  unknown  to  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  So  far  as  it  contains  an  apology  for  not  signing 
the  bill,  it  is  a  political  manifesto  against  the  friends  of  the  gov 
ernment.  So  far  as  it  proposes  to  execute  the  bill,  which  is  not  a 
law,  it  is  a  grave  executive  usurpation.  It  is  fitting  that  the  facts 
necessary  to  enable  the  friends  of  the  administration  to  appreciate 
the  apology  and  the  usurpation  be  spread  before  them. 

The  proclamation  says : 

"  And  whereas  the  said  bill  was  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
for  his  approval  less  than  one  hour  before  the  sine  die  adjournment  of  said  session, 
and  was  not  signed  by  him — " 

If  this  be  accurate,  still  this  bill  was  presented  with  other. bills 
that  were  signed.  Within  that  hour,  the  time  for  the  sine  die  ad 
journment  was  three  times  postponed  by  the  votes  of  both  houses, 
and  the  least  intimation  of  a  desire  for  more  time  by  the  Presi 
dent  to  consider  this  bill  would  have  secured  a  farther  postpone 
ment.  Yet  the  committee,  sent  to  ascertain  if  the  President  had 
any  farther  communication  for  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  re 
ported  that  he  had  none ;  and  the  friends  of  the  bill,  who  had 
anxiously  waited  upon  him  to  ascertain  its  fate,  had  already  been 
informed  that  the  President  had  resolved  not  to  sign  it.  The 
time  of  presentation,  therefore,  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  failure 
to  approve  it. 

The  bill  had  been  discussed  and  considered  for  more  than  a 
month  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  which  passed  it  on  the 
4th  of  May.  It  was  reported  to  the  Senate  on  the  27th  of  May, 
without  material  amendment,  and  it  passed  the  Senate  absolutely 
as  it  came  from  the  House  on  the  2d  of  July.  Ignorance  of  its 
contents  is  out  of  the  question.  Indeed,  at  the  President's  re 
quest,  a  draft  of  a  bill  substantially  the  same  in  all  material 
points,  and  identical  in  the  points  objected  to  by  the  proclama 
tion,  had  been  laid  before  him  for  his  consideration  in  the  winter 
of  1862-3.  There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  to  suppose  the  provi 
sions  of  the  bill  took  the  President  by  surprise.  On  the  contrary, 
we  have  reason  to  believe  them  to  have  been  so  well  known  that 
this  method  of  preventing  the  bill  from  becoming  a  law,  without 
the  constitutional  responsibility  of  a  veto,  had  been  resolved  on 

DD 


418  THE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL 

long  before  the  bill  passed  the  Senate.  We  are  informed  by  a 
gentleman  entitled  to  entire  confidence,  that  before  the  22d  of 
June,  in  New  Orleans,  it  was  stated  by  a  member  of  General 
Banks's  staff,  in  the  presence  of  other  gentlemen  in  official  posi 
tion,  that  Senator  Doolittle  had  written  a  letter  to  the  Department 
that  the  House  "  Eeconstruction  Bill"  would  be  staved  off  in  the 
Senate  to  a  period  too  late  in  the  session  to  require  the  President 
to  veto  in  order  to  defeat  it ;  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  retain 
the  bill,  if  necessary,  and  thereby  defeat  it.  The  experience  of 
Senator  "VYade  in  his  various  efforts  to  get  the  bill  considered  in 
the  Senate  was  quite  in  accordance  with  that  plan,  and  the  fate 
of  the  bill  was  accurately  predicted  by  letters  received  from  New 
Orleans  before  it  had  passed  the  Senate. 

Had  the  proclamation  stopped  there,  it  would  have  been  only 
one  other  defeat  of  the  will  of  the  people  by  an  executive  per 
version  of  the  Constitution.  But  it  goes  farther.  The  President 
says : 

"And  whereas  the  said  bill  contains,  among  other  things,  a  plan  for  restoring 
the  States  in  rebellion  to  their  proper  practical  relations  in  the  Union,  which  plan 
expresses  the  sense  of  Congress  upon  that  subject,  and  which  plan  it  is  now  thought 
fit  to  lay  before  the  people  for  their  consideration — ' 

By  what  authority  of  the  Constitution  ?  In  what  forms  ?  The 
result  to  be  declared  by  whom  ?  With  what  effect  when  ascer 
tained?  Is  it  to  be  a  law  by  the  approval  of  the  people,  without 
the  approval  of  Congress,  at  the  will  of  the  President?  Will  the 
President,  on  his  opinion  of  the  popular  approval,  execute  it  as 
law?  Or  is  this  merely  a  device  to  avoid  the  serious  responsi 
bility  of  defeating  a  law  on  which  so  many  loyal  hearts  reposed 
for  security?  But  the  reasons  now  assigned  for  not  approving 
the  bill  are  full  of  ominous  significance.  The  President  proceeds: 

"  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do  pro 
claim,  declare,  and  make  known  that,  while  I  am  (as  I  was  in  December  last,  when 
by  proclamation  I  propounded  a  plan  for  restoration)  unprepared,  by  a  formal  ap 
proval  of  this  bill,  to  be  inflexibly  committed  to  any  single  plan  of  restoration — ' 

That  is  to  say,  the  President  is  resolved  that  the  people  shall 
not,  by  law,  take  any  securities  from  the  rebel  States  against  a  re 
newal  of  the  rebellion,  before  restoring  their  power  to  govern  us. 
His  wisdom  and  prudence  are  to  be  our  sufficient  guarantees. 
He  farther  says: 

"And  while  I  am  also  unprepared  to  declare  that  the  free  State  Constitutions 


FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.      419 

and  governments  already  adopted  and  installed  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  shall  be 
set  aside  and  held  for  naught,  thereby  repelling  and  discouraging  the  loyal  citizens 
who  have  set  up  the  same  as  to  farther  effort — " 

That  is  to  say,  the  President  persists  in  recognizing  those  shad 
ows  of  governments  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  which  Congress 
formally  declared  should  not  be  recognized ;  whose  representa 
tives  and  senators  were  repelled  by  formal  votes  of  both  houses 
of  Congress,  and  which,  it  was  formally  declared,  should  have  no 
electoral  vote  for  President  and  Yice-President.  They  are  mere 
creatures  of  his  will.  They  can  not  live  a  day  without  his  sup 
port.  They  are  mere  oligarchies  imposed  on  the  people  by  mili 
tary  orders,  under  the  forms  of  election,  at  which  generals,  pro 
vost-marshals,  vsoldiers,  and  camp  followers  were  the  chief  actors, 
assisted  by  a  handful  of  resident  citizens,  and  urged  on  to  prema 
ture  action  by  private  letters  from  the  President.  In  neither 
Louisiana  nor  Arkansas,  before  Banks's  defeat,  did  the  United 
States  control  half  the  territory  or  half  the  population.  In  Lou 
isiana,  General  Banks's  proclamation  candidly  declared,  "The  fun 
damental  law  of  the  State  is  martial  law."  On  that  foundation 
of  freedom  he  erected  what  the  President  calls  "the  free  Consti 
tution  and  government  of  Louisiana."  But  of  this  State,  whose 
fundamental  law  was  martial  law,  only  sixteen  parishes  out  of 
forty-eight  parishes  were  held  by  the  United  States ;  and  in  five 
of  our  sixteen  parishes  we  held  only  our  camps.  The  eleven 
parishes  we  substantially  held  had  233,185  inhabitants;  the  resi 
due  of  the  State,  not  held  by  us,  575,617.  At  the  farce  called  an 
election,  the  officers  of  General  Banks  returned  that  11,346  bal 
lots  were  cast,  but  whether  any,  or  by  whom,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  no  legal  assurance.  But  it  is  probable  that 
4000  were  cast  by  soldiers,  or  employes  of  the  United  States, 
military  or  municipal ;  but  none,  according  to  any  law,  State  or 
national,  and  so  7000  ballots  represent  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
Such  is  the  free  Constitution  and  government  of  Louisiana,  and 
like  it  is  that  of  Arkansas.  Nothing  but  the  failure  of  a  military 
expedition  deprived  us  of  a  like  one  in  the  swamps  of  Florida ; 
and,  before  the  -presidential  election,  like  ones  may  be  organized 
in  every  rebel  State  where  the  United  States  have  a  camp. 

The  President,  by  preventing  this  bill  from  becoming  a  law, 
holds  the  electoral  votes  of  the  rebel  States  at  the  dictation  of  his 
personal  ambition.  If  these  votes  turn  the  balance  in  his  favor, 


420  THE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL 

is  it  to  be  supposed  that  his  competitor,  defeated  by  such  means, 
will  acquiesce?  If  the  rebel  majority  assert  their  supremacy  in 
those  States,  and  send  votes  which  elect  an  enemy  of  the  govern 
ment,  will  we  not  repel  his  claims?  And  is  not  that  civil  war 
for  the  presidency  inaugurated  by  the  voice  of  rebel  States  ?  Se 
riously  impressed  with  these  dangers,  Congress,  "the  proper  con 
stitutional  authority,"  formally  declared  that  there  are  no  govern 
ments  in  the  rebel  States,  and  provided  for  their  erection  at  a 
proper  time.  Both  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Kepresentatives 
rejected  the  senators  and  representatives  chosen  under  the  au 
thority  of  what  the  President  calls  the  free  Constitution  and  gov 
ernment  of  Arkansas.  The  President's  proclamation  "  holds  for 
naught"  this  judgment,  and  discards  the  authority  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  strides  headlong  toward  the  anarchy  his  proclamation 
of  the  8th  of  December  inaugurated.  If  electors  for  President  be 
allowed  to  be  chosen  in  either  of  those  States,  a  sinister  light  will 
be  cast  on  the  motives  which  induced  the  President  to  "  hold  for 
naught"  the  will  of  Congress  rather  than  his  government  in  Lou 
isiana  and  Arkansas.  That  judgment  of  Congress  which  the 
President  defies  was  the  exercise  of  an  authority  exclusively  in 
vested  in  Congress  by  the  Constitution  to  determine  what  is  the 
established  government  in  a  State,  and  in  its  own  nature,  and  by 
the  highest  judicial  authority,  binding  on  all  other  departments 
of  the  government. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  formally  declared  that,  under  the 
fourth  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution  requiring 
the  United  States  to  guarantee  to  every  State  a  republican  form 
of  government,  "  it  rests  with  Congress  to  decide  what  govern 
ment  is  the  established  one  in  a  State;"  and  "when  senators  and 
representatives  of  a  State  are  admitted  into  the  councils  of  the 
Union,  the  authority  of  the  government  under  which  they  are  ap 
pointed,  as  well  as  its  republican  character,  is  recognized  by  the 
proper  constitutional  authority,  and  its  decision  is  binding  on 
every  other  department  of  the  government,  and  could  not  be 
questioned  in  a  judicial  tribunal.  It  is  true  that  the  contest  in 
this  case  did  not  last  long  enough  to  bring  the  matter  to  this 
issue;  and  as  no  senators  or  representatives  were  elected  under 
the  authority  of  the  government  of  which  Mr.  Dorr  was  the  head, 
Congress  was  not  called  upon  to  decide  the  controversy.  Yet 
the  right  to  decide  is  placed  there."  Even  the  President's  procla- 


FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.      421 

mation  of  the  8th  of  December  formally  declares  that  "  whether 
members  sent  to  Congress  from  any  State  shall  be  admitted  to 
seats  constitutionally  rests  exclusively  with  the  respective  houses, 
and  not  to  any  extent  with  the  executive."  And  that  is  not  the 
less  true,  because  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  President's  assump 
tion,  in  that  proclamation,  of  a  right  to  institute  and  recognize 
State  governments  in  the  rebel  States,  nor  because  the  President 
is  unable  to  perceive  that  his  recognition  is  a  nullity  if  it  be  not 
conclusive  upon  Congress. 

Under,  the  Constitution,  the  right  to  senators  and  representa 
tives  is  inseparable  from  a  State  government.  If  there  be  a  State 
government,  the  right  is  absolute.  If  there  be  no  State  govern 
ment,  there  can  be  no  senators  or  representatives  chosen.  The 
two  houses  of  Congress  are  expressly  declared  to  be  the  sole 
judges  of  their  own  members.  When,  therefore,  senators  and 
representatives  are  admitted,  the  State  government  under  whose 
authority  they  were  chosen  is  conclusively  established;  when  they 
are  rejected,  its  existence  is  as  conclusively  rejected  and  denied. 
And  to  this  judgment  the  President  is  bound  to  submit. 

The  President  proceeds  to  express  his  unwillingness  "  to  de 
clare  a  constitutional  competency  in  Congress  to  abolish  slavery 
in  States"  as  another  reason  for  not  signing  the  bill.  But  the 
bill  nowhere  proposes  to  abolish  slavery  in  States.  The  bill  did 
provide  that  all  slaves  in  the  rebel  States  should  be  manumitted. 
But  as  the  President  had  already  signed  three  bills  manumitting 
several  classes  of  slaves  in  States,  it  is  not  conceived  possible  that 
he  entertained  any  scruples  touching  that  provision  of  the  bill 
respecting  which  he  is  silent.  He  has  already  himself  assumed  a 
right,  by  proclamation,  to  free  much  the  larger  number  of  slaves 
in  the  rebel  States,  under  the  authority  given  him  by  Congress 
to  use  military  power  to  suppress  the  rebellion ;  and  it  is  quite 
inconceivable  that  the  President  should  think  Congress  could  vest 
in  him  a  discretion  which  it  could  itself  exercise. 

It  is  the  more  unintelligible  from  the  fact  that,  except  in  respect 
to  a  small  part  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana,  the  bill  covered  only 
what  the  proclamation  covered — added  a  congressional  title  and 
judicial  remedies  by  law;  to  the  disputed  title  under  the  procla 
mation,  and  perfected  the  work  the  President  professed  to  be  so 
anxious  to  accomplish.  Slavery  as  an  institution  can  be  abolish 
ed  only  by  a  change  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  or 


422  TIIE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL 

of  the  law  of  the  State,  and  this  is  the  principle  of  the  bill.  It 
required  the  new  Constitution  of  the  State  to  provide  for  that 
prohibition ;  and  the  President,  in  the  face  of  his  own  proclama 
tion,  does  not  venture  to  object  to  insisting  on  that  condition. 
Nor  will  the  country  tolerate  its  abandonment ;  yet  he  defeated 
the  only  provision  imposing  it.  But  when  he  describes  himself, 
in  spite  of  this  great  blow  at  emancipation,  as  "sincerely  hoping 
and  expecting  that  a  constitutional  amendment  abolishing  slav 
ery  throughout  the  nation  may  be  adopted,"  we  curiously  inquire 
on  what  his  expectation  rests,  after  the  vote  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  at  the  recent  session,  and  in  the  face  of  the  political 
complexion  of  more  than  enough  of  the  States  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  its  adoption  within  any  reasonable  time,  and  why 
he  did  not  indulge  his  sincere  hopes  with  so  large  an  installment 
of  the  blessing  as  his  approval  of  the  bill  would  have  secured  ? 

After  this  assignment  of  his  reasons  for  preventing  the  bill 
from  becoming  a  law,  the  President  proceeds  to  declare  his  pur 
pose  to  execute  it  as  a  law  by  his  plenary  dictatorial  power.  He 
says: 

"Nevertheless,  I  am  fully  satisfied  with  the  system  for  restoration  contained  in 
the  bill  as  the  very  proper  plan  for  the  loyal  people  of  any  State  choosing  to  adopt 
it ;  and  that  I  am,  and  at  all  times  shall  be  prepared  to  give  the  executive  aid  and 
assistance  to  any  such  people  as  soon  as  the  military  resistance  to  the  United  States 
shall  have  been  suppressed  in  any  such  State,  and  the  people  thereof  shall  have 
sufficiently  returned  to  their  obedience  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States,  in  which  cases  military  governors  will  be  appointed,  with  the  directions  to 
proceed  according  to  the  bill." 

A  more  studied  outrage  on  the  legislative  authority  of  the 
people  has  never  been  perpetrated.  Congress  passed  a  bill,  the 
President  refused  to  approve  it ;  and  then,  by  proclamation,  puts 
as  much  of  it  in  force  as  he  sees  fit,  and  proposes  to  execute  those 
parts  by  officers  unknown  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and 
not  subject  to  the  confirmation  of  the  Senate.  The  bill  directed 
the  appointment  of  provisional  governors  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate.  The  President,  after  defeating  the  law, 
proposes  to  appoint  without  law,  and  without  the  advice  and  con 
sent  of  the  Senate,  military  governors  of  the  rebel  States.  He 
has  already  exercised  this  dictatorial  usurpation  in  Louisiana,  and 
he  defeated  the  bill  to  prevent  its  limitation.  Henceforth  we 
must  regard  the  following  precedent  as  the  presidential  law  of 
the  rebel  States. 


FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.   423 

"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  March  15, 18C4. 
u  His  Excellency  Michael  Halm,  Governor  of  Louisiana: 

"Until  farther  orders,  you  are  hereby  invested  with  the  powers  exercised  hitherto 
by  the  Military  Governor  of  Louisiana. 

"Yours,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

This  Michael  Hahn  is  no  officer  of  the  United  States.  The 
President,  without  law,  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate',  by  a  private  note  not  even  countersigned  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  makes  him  dictator  of  Louisiana.  The  bill  pro 
vided  for  the  civil  administration  of  the  laws  of  the  State  till  it 
should  be  in  a  fit  temper  to  govern  itself,  repealing  all  laws  recog 
nizing  slavery,  and  making  all  men  equal  before  the  law.  These 
beneficent  provisions  the  President  has  annulled.  People  will 
die,  and  marry,  and  transfer  property,  and  buy  and  sell,  and  to 
these  acts  of  civil  life  courts  and  officers  of  the  law  are  necessary. 
Congress  legislated  for  these  necessary  things,  and  the  President 
deprives  them  of  the  protection  of  the  law.  The  President's  pur 
pose  to  instruct  his  military  governors  to  "proceed  according  to 
the  bill" — a  make-shift  to  calm  the  disappointment  its  defeat  has 
occasioned — is  not  merely  a  grave  usurpation,  but  a  transparent 
delusion.  He  can  not  "proceed  according  to  the  bill"  after  pre 
venting  it  from  becoming  a  law.  Whatever  is  done  will  be  at 
his  will  and  pleasure,  by  persons  responsible  to  no  law,  and  more 
interested  to  secure  the  interests  and  execute  the  will  of  the  Presi 
dent  than  of  the  people,  and  the  will  of  Congress  is  to  be  "held 
for  naught,"  unless  "  the  loyal  people  of  the  rebel  States  choose 
to  adopt  it."  If  they  should  graciously  prefer  the  stringent  bill 
to  the  easy  proclamation,  still  the  registration  will  be  made  under 
no  legal  sanction ;  it  will  give  no  assurance  that  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  States  have  taken  the  oath ;  if  administered,  it  will 
be  without  legal  authority,  and  void ;  no  indictment  will  lie  for 
false  swearing  at  the  election,  or  for. admitting  bad,  or  for  reject 
ing  good  votes.  It  will  be  the  farce  of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas 
acted  over  again,  under  the  forms  of  this  bill,  but  not  by  authority 
of  law. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  guarantees  of  future  peace  which 
Congress  meant  to  exact,  the  forms  as  well  as  the  substance  of  the 
bill  must  yield  to  the  President's  will  that  none  should  be  im 
posed.  It  was  the  solemn  resolve  of  Congress  to  protect  the  loyal 
men  of  the  nation  against  three  great  dangers :  (1)  the  return  to 


424  THE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL 

power  of  the  guilty  leaders  of  the  rebellion ;  (2)  the  continuance 
of  slavery;  and  (3)  the  burden  of  the  rebel  debt.  Congress  re 
quired  assent  to  those  provisions  of  the  Convention  of  the  State, 
and,  if  refused,  it  was  to  be  dissolved.  The  President  "  holds  for 
naught"  that  resolve  of  Congress,  because  he  is  unwilling  "to  be 
inflexibly  committed  to  any  one  plan  of  restoration ;"  and  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  protect  them 
selves  unless  their  enemies  agree  to  it.  The  order  to  proceed  ac 
cording  to  the  bill  is  therefore  merely  at  the  will  of  the  rebel 
States,  and  they  have  the  option  to  reject  it  and  accept  the  proc 
lamation  of  the  8th  of  December,  and  demand  the  President's  rec 
ognition.  Mark  the  contrast!  The  bill  requires  a  majority,  the 
proclamation  is  satisfied  with  one  tenth ;  the  bill  requires  one 
oath,  the  proclamation  another ;  the  bill  ascertains  votes  by  regis 
tering,  the  proclamation  by  guess;  the  bill  exacts  adherence  to 
existing  territorial  limits,  the  proclamation  admits  of  others ;  the 
bill  governs  the  rebel  States  ly  law,  equalizing  all  before  it,  the 
proclamation  commits  them  to  the  lawless  discretion  of  military 
governors  and  provost -marshals';  the  bill  forbids  electors  for 
President,  the  proclamation  and  defeat  of  the  bill  threaten  us 
with  civil  war  for  the  admission  or  exclusion  of  such  votes ;  the 
bill  exacted  exclusion  of  dangerous  enemies  from  power,  and  the 
relief  of  the  nation  from  the  rebel  debt,  and  the  prohibition  of 
slavery  forever,  so  that  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  will  double 
our  resources  to  bear  or  pay  the  national  debt,  free  the  masses 
from  the  old  domination  of  the  rebel  leaders,  and  eradicate  the 
cause  of  the  war ;  the  proclamation  secures  neither  of  these  guar 
antees. 

It  is  silent  respecting  the  rebel  debt  and  the  political  exclusion 
of  rebel  leaders,  leaving  slavery  exactly  where  it  was  by  law  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  and  adds  no  guarantees  even  of  the 
freedom  of  the  slaves  the  President  undertook  to  manumit.  It  is 
summed  up  in  an  illegal  oath,  without  a  sanction,  and  therefore 
void.  The  oath  is  to  support  all  proclamations  of  the  President 
during  the  rebellion  having  reference  to  slaves.  Any  govern 
ment  is  to  be  accepted  at  the  hands  of  one  tenth  of  the  people 
not  contravening  that  oath.  Now  that  oath  neither  secures  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  nor  adds  any  security  to  the  freedom  of  the 
slaves  whom  the  President  declared  free.  It  does  not  secure  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  for  the  proclamation  of  freedom  merely  pro- 


FOR  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THE  REBELLIOUS  STATES.      425 

fessed  to  free  certain  slaves,  while  it  recognized  the  institution. 
Every  Constitution  of  the  rebel  States  at  the  outbreak  of  the  re 
bellion  may  be  adopted,  without  the  change  of  a  letter,  for  none 
of  them  contravene  that  proclamation,  none  of  them  establish 
slavery. 

It  adds  no  security  to  the  freedom  of  the  slaves,  for  their  title  is 
the  proclamation  of  freedom.  If  it  be  unconstitutional,  an  oath 
to  support  it  is  void.  Whether  constitutional  or  not,  the  oath  is 
without  authority  of  law,  and  therefore  void.  If  it  be  valid,  and 
observed,  it  exacts  no  enactment  by  the  State,  either  in  law  or 
Constitution,  to  add  a  State  guarantee  to  the  proclamation  title ; 
and  the  right  of  a  slave  to  freedom  is  an  open  question  before  the 
State  courts  on  the  relative  authority  of  the  State  law  and  the 
proclamation.  If  the  oath  binds  the  one  tenth  who  take  it,  it  is 
not  exacted  of  the  other  nine  tenths  who  succeed  to  the  control 
of  the  State  government,  so  that  it  is  annulled  instantly  by  the 
act  of  recognition.  What  the  State  courts  would  say  of  the  proc 
lamation  who  can  doubt?  But  the  master  would  not  go  into 
court,  he  would  seize  his  slave.  What  the  Supreme  Court  would 
say  who  can  tell  ?  When  and  how  is  the  question  to  get  there  ? 
No  habeas  corpus  lies  for  him  in  a  United  States  court ;  and  the 
President  defeated  with  this  bill  its  extension  of  that  writ  to  this 
case. 

Such  are  the  fruits  of  this  rash  and  fatal  act  of  the  President,  a 
blow  at  the  friends  of  his  administration,  at  the  rights  of  humani 
ty,  and  at  the  principles  of  republican  government. 

The  President  has  greatly  presumed  on  the  forbearance  which 
the  supporters  of  his  administration  have  so  long  practiced,  in 
view  of  the  arduous  conflict  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  the 
reckless  ferocity  of  our  political  opponents. 

But  he  must  understand  that  our  support  is  of  a  cause,  and  not 
of  a  man ;  that  the  authority  of  Congress  is  paramount,  and  must 
be  respected ;  that  the  whole  body  of  the  Union  men  of  Congress 
will  not  submit  to  be  impeached  by  him  of  rash  and  unconstitu 
tional  legislation ;  and  that,  if  he  wishes  our  support,  he  must  con 
fine  himself  to  his  executive  duties — to  obey  and  execute — not  to 
make  the  laws ;  to  suppress  by  arms  armed  rebellion,  and  leave 
political  reorganization  to  the  Congress. 

If  the  supporters  of  the  government  fail  to  insist  on  this,  they 
become  responsible  for  the  usurpations  which  they  fail  to  rebuke, 


426        THE  PRESIDENT'S  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BILL,  ETC. 

and  are  justly  liable  to  the  indignation  of  the  people  whose  rights 
and  security  committed  to  their  keeping  they  sacrifice. 

Let  them  consider  the  remedy  for  these  usurpations,  and,  hav 
ing  found,  fearlessly  execute  it. 

B.  F.  WADE,  Chairman  of  Senate  Committee. 

H.  WINTER  DAVIS, 

Chairman  of  Committee  of  House  of  Kepresentatives 
on  the  Eebellious  States. 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

ON  the  14th  of  October,  1864,  the  new  Constitution  of  Maryland,  sub 
mitted  by  the  State  Convention  in  June,  abolishing  slavery  in  the  State, 
was  approved  and  adopted  by  the  people.  Mr.  Davis  thus  lived  to  see 
accomplished  the  work  of  emancipation,  in  which  he  had  taken  great  in 
terest,  and  in  the  advocacy  of  which  he  had  also  had  an  active  part. 

But  an  opposition  to  him  in  the  ranks  of  the  Union  party  in  his  own 
district,  which  had  been  confined  at  first  to  a  few,  had  been  increased  by 
the  policy  he  had  advocated  and  by  his  votes  on  some  occasions  in  Con 
gress,  and  had  not  been  diminished  by  the  tone  he  had  sometimes  used 
toward  such  opponents.  His  opposition  to  the  renomination  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  and  to  certain  measures  of  his  administration,  had  had  the  same 
effect  in  this  district,  and  it  had  lately  been  increased  among  others  by 
the  publication  of  the  "Wade-Davis  Manifesto."  It  was  asserted  by 
some  of  the  opponents  of  Mr.  Davis  that,  while  he  thus  did  not  com 
pletely  support  the  administration,  and  furnished  (by  the  Manifesto)  ar 
guments  against  it  during  the  canvass,  he  was  in  some  things  more  ex 
treme  than  the  Republican  party;  that  his  votes  in  Congress  actually 
drove  away  Southern  trade  from  Baltimore,  and  that  his  course  and  pro 
posed  action  now  tended  to  exasperate  instead  of  winning  back  the  States 
now  (then)  in  rebellion. 

Besides  these  allegations,  a  good  deal  of  the  opposition  to  Mr.  Davis 
must  be  traced  to  the  personal  animosities  and  bitterness  of  feeling  which 
in  Baltimore  of  late  years  had  been  the  invariable  consequence  of  a  dif 
ference,  not  merely  of  party  and  political  views,  but  of  opinions  also,  as 
to  the  line  of  party  conduct  even  among  its  own  adherents.  It  was 
farther  asserted  by  some  that  Mr.  Davis  was  then,  and  would  shortly  de 
clare  himself,  in  favor  of  "negro  suffrage,"  whenever  he  thought  the  ne 
cessities  of  the  political  situation  demanded  its  adoption. 

Upon  all  these  grounds  and  assertions,  this  opposition  to  him,  which 
had  proved  itself  important  two  years  before,  when  he  was  last  nomina 
ted  for  Congress,  now  showed  signs  of  carrying  with  it  the  control  of  the 
Union  party.  This  was  confirmed  in  September  by  the  defeat,  for  the 


428  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

State  Nominating  Convention,  of  those  who  opposed  the  nomination  of 
Governor  Swann,  and  it  was  finally  settled  in  October  by  the  result  of  a 
municipal  election  in  Baltimore.  At  the  ward  meetings  in  the  district, 
held  immediately  afterward,  for  delegates  to  a  Convention  to  nominate  a 
representative  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  (1865-'67),  the  opponents 
of  Mr.  Davis  carried  almost  every  ward.  The  nomination  was  given 
unanimously  to  Colonel  Charles  E.  Phelps,  of  Baltimore,  who  had  served 
with  gallantry  during  the  war,  had  been  wounded  in  action,  and  who 
was  returned  in  November  without  opposition  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  here  whether  any  different  course,  if  it 
had  been  pursued  by  Mr.  Davis,  would  have  maintained  the  unity  of  the 
party  strength,  continued  its  support  of  him,  and  prevented  those  defec 
tions  which  had  on  previous  occasions  refused  to  him  the  united  party 
vote.  He  always  boldly  avowed  his  opinions,  and  assumed  their  full 
responsibility.  He  made  no  compromises  with  what  he  thought  a  vacil 
lating  policy,  and  those  even  who  condemned  his  course  could  not  refuse 
to  admit  the  sincerity  and  the  fearlessness  of  his  action.  He  declined, 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  to  make  concessions,  or  to  explain  away  any 
vote  or  act  of  his,  even  when  he  was  assured  that  his  defeat  would  be 
the  penalty  of  his  refusal ;  for  in  matters  of  this  kind  he  was  as  much 
unaccustomed  to  yield  to  the  persuasions  of  friends,  or  to  considerations 
of  "policy,"  as  he  was  to  the  threats  and  imprecations  of  enemies.  In 
deed,  he  took  no  account  of  opposition,  except  to  work  the  more  reso 
lutely  ;  and  he  frequently  disregarded  the  advice  of  those  even  to  whom 
he  was  attached,  unless  it  accorded  with  what  he  thought  right,  and  so, 
always  and  every  where,  expedient.  He  followed  the  convictions  and 
conclusions  of  his  own  judgment  alone. 

In  consequence  of  this  defeat,  and  the  feelings  engendered  by  it,  Mr. 
Davis  was  not  invited  by  the  State  Central  Committee  of  the  Union 
party  in  Maryland  to  take  part  in  the  canvass  in  this  State. 

He  was  invited,  however,  elsewhere,  and  among  these  invitations  he 
accepted  one  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  spoke  on  the  25th  of  October,  in 
National  Hall,  to  a  very  large  meeting  under  the  auspices  of  the  Union 
League,  as  follows : 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, — The  canvass  in 
which  the  American  people  are  now  engaged  is  very  much  the 
most  momentous  that  the  history  of  the  world  or  of  free  govern 
ment  has  presented.  If  it  succeed,  as  in  my  judgment  it  will  suc 
ceed,  in  placing  in  power  the  men  who  have  conducted  the  gov 
ernment  through  this  awful  crisis  till  safety  begins  to  be  visible, 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  429 

a  result  will  have  been  accomplished  which  will  forever  place  the 
capacity  of  the  people  of  America  for  self-government  beyond 
cavil — beyond  the  reach  of  question ;  for  they  are  called  to  vote 
for  the  election  of  a  man  who  has  presided  over  the  government 
in  circumstances  altogether  unprecedented,  during  a  time  when 
vast  sacrifices  have  been  exacted,  and  vast  sacrifices  have  cheer 
fully  been  made  by  the  mass  of  the  American  people ;  when  enor 
mous  taxes  have  been  imposed ;  when  enormous  armies  have  been 
raised ;  when  great  results  were  expected,  and  great  results  have 
not  always  been  achieved ;  when  disaster  has  perched  upon  the 
national  banner  as  often  as  victory,  and  when  the  great  prepon 
derance  of  our  resources  in  men  and  money,  while  gradually  and 
steadily  eating  toward  the  heart  of  the  rebellion,  have  not  reached 
it  with  that  promptness,  have  not  crushed  it  with  that  decisive 
ness,  that  our  hopes  led  us  to  expect  when  the  war  broke  out. 
Under  these  circumstances,  judged  by  the  history  of  the  world, 
discontent,  dissension,  the  lack  of  spirit  and  of  energy,  divisions  at 
home,  dictating  tones  from  abroad,  popular  submission,  popular 
bewilderment,  were  what  we  were  entitled  to  expect — nay,  what 
we  were  bound  to  expect.  Instead  of  that,  what  do  we  behold  ? 
The  great  mass  of  the  American  people  having,  as  it  were,  been 
surprised  into  the  renomination  of  the  present  candidate- — then 
for  a  moment  pausing,  as  if  frightened  at  what  they  had  done- 
then  listening  to  the  first  echo  from  Chicago,  and  forgetting  every 
doubt,  throwing  aside  every  hesitation,  subjecting  every  criticism 
to  the  dictates  of  the  highest  reason  and  the  highest  statesman 
ship,  as  one  man  turned  to  the  candidate  whom  before  they  had 
doubted,  with  a  resolution  that  they  must  make  an  election — not 
between  two  individuals — not  between  the  personal  qualities  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  George  B.  M'Clellan,  not  between  the  pub 
lic  services  of  the  one  or  the  other,  but  an  election  between  the 
overthrow  and  the  salvation  of  the  republic.  (Loud  applause.) 
They  exhibited,  they  are  now  exhibiting  every  where  in  this  land, 
that  great  and  highest  mark  of  sublime  statesmanship,  the  capacity 
of  judging  between  things  neither  of  which  may  be  acceptable, 
but  one  of  which  is  necessary — the  great  quality  of  a  great  states 
man  to  subordinate  personal  dislikes,  differences  of  opinion,  upon 
subordinate  points;  great  failures  for  whom  none  but  those  in 
power  can  be  held  responsible — to  subordinate  the  natural  and 
inevitable  discontent  which  such  events  as  those  bring  about  in  a 


430  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

people,  and  to  raise  the  great  practical  question,  "What  do  we 
men  of  America  wish  to  accomplish  ?"  and  having  determined 
what  they  wish  to  accomplish,  to  ask  the  other  question,  "  Which 
of  the  two  men  before  the  people  for  their  votes  is  on  our  side?" 
not  which  is  the  abler,  not  which  is  the  most  skillful  administra 
tor,  not  which  is  the  better  warrior,  not  even  which  is  the  more 
patriotic ;  but,  conceding  them  to  be  equal  on  these  points,  or  con 
ceding  our  opponent  to  be  superior  to  our  candidate  on  any  or  all 
of  these  points,  the  American  people  have  solemnly  asked  them 
selves  "which  of  those  two  men  is  on  our  side?"  and  having  de 
termined  that  one  plain,  simple  question  of  fact,  they  have  determ 
ined,  if  need  be,  that  the  principle  of  our  politics  shall  be,  and  that 
the  safety  of  the  nation  requires  that  it  shall  be,  that  even  the 
worst  man  on  our  side  is  better  than  the  best  man  on  their  side. 
(Applause.)  And  that  is  the  reason,  gentlemen,  that  I,  and  thou 
sands  like  me  in  America,  support  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  pres 
idency  ;  not  because  we  think  his  acts  are  all  wise  or  all  defensi 
ble — not  because  we  regard  him  as  the  ablest  among  the  men  who 
stand  by  the  republic  in  the  hour  of  its  need — still  less  for  that 
most  dangerous  reason  assigned  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  that 
this  great  contest  in  which  the  people  are  engaged  is  a  mere  con 
test  for  the  presidency,  and  that  it  would  be  yielding  the  point  in 
contest  to  select  another,  even  an  abler  man  on  our  side.  The 
people  of  America  would  shed  no  blood  in  such  a  quarrel ;  the 
people  of  America  would  raise  no  army  to  fight  out  a  question  of 
the  succession  to  the  presidency  on  the  principles  of  Mexican  pol 
itics.  We  shall  vote  for  Abraham  Lincoln,  not  because  of  any 
of  those  reasons,  but  because,  whether  we  will  or  no,  even  if  we 
preferred  another  now,  we  can  not  have  him ;  if  we  desire  a 
change,  we  can  not  change  without  bringing  ruin  upon  the  re 
public  (applause);  and  for  that  reason,  every  doubt  is  subordina 
ted  to  the  great  necessities  of  empire. 

It  is  not  a  question,  fellow-citizens,  for  school -boys  to  debate ; 
nor  is  it  a  question  for  men  to  attend,  as  heretofore,  political 
meetings,  to  be  decided  by  the  wittiest  speech  or  the  best-told 
story.  Blood  rests  upon  that  decision ;  the  being  of  a  nation 
rests  upon  your  judgment.  Great  sacrifices  heretofore  made  are 
to  be  thrown  away  if  you  come  to  one  judgment,  and  are  to  be 
fruitful  in  blessings  if  you  come  to  another  judgment. 

Sloth,  and  ease,  and  hesitation,  and  cupidity,  and  cowardice, 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  431 

all  counsel  you  to  take  another  candidate,  for  there  are  burdens 
in  taking  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  there  are  battles  in  placing  him  at 
the  head  of  the  government ;  there  is  war  at  least  for  one  year 
more,  very  possibly  for  two,  it  may  be  for  three  years,  and  it  may 
be  for  more  than  three ;  and,  therefore,  when  men  resolve  to  take 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  their  President,  they  must  do  it  as  they  do 
in  forming  the  holiest  of  the  relations  of  social  life — for  better, 
for  worse — with  the  consciousness  of  what  is  before  them ;  know 
ing  the  burdens  that  they  assume ;  knowing  the  consequences 
that  follow  from  it;  knowing  that,  peaceful  as  we  are  here,  it 
dooms  fifty  thousand  men  to  death,  and  that  they  have  to  come 
from  your  brothers  and  from  your  sons — not  to  do  his  bidding, 
not  to  determine  the  wretched  question  whether  he  or  some  other 
man  shall  be  President,  but  whether  the  fabric  of  government 
reared  by  our  fathers  shall  remain  untouched — whether  the  in 
tegrity  of  republican  institutions  shall  be  preserved.  (Loud 
cheers.)  After  this  remarkable  period  of  hesitation  to  which  I 
have  referred,  when  so  many  patriotic  eyes  looked  to  Chicago  for 
comfort  and  support,  why  is  it  that  every  patriotic  man  that 
turned  his  eyes  in  that  direction  has  now  turned  his  back  in  that 
direction  ?  For  it  was  done  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye ;  it  was 
done  within  twenty-four  hours ;  it  was  done  as  soon  as  the  men 
of  America  read  the  Chicago  Platform.  (Applause.)  I  have 
never  for  a  moment  hesitated  in  my  judgment  that  the  mass  of 
American  people,  taxation,  bloodshed,  failures,  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  are  for  the  war  as  the  only  path  of  safety.  Not 
because  they  want  bloodshed,  but  because  they  want  peace ;  not 
because  they  want  to  subjugate  their  fellow-citizens,  but  because 
they  are  "determined  all  shall  be  free.  (Great  cheering.)  There 
fore,  when  they  read  the  Chicago  Platform,  and  learned  that  there 
was  even  a  doubt  as  to  whether  the  war  was  to  proceed,  that  set 
tled  their  judgment  on  their  candidate.  "What  is  that  platform? 
First  it  begins  by  assuring  us  that  the  Democratic  party  is  now 
for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  "  as  'heretofore.'1'1  When  we 
read  those  words  we  had  a  measure  by  which  we  could  judge 
the  intensity  and  tfce  character  of  their  devotion ;  and  we  remem 
bered  that  in  their  hands,  under  their  control,  under  the  presi 
dency  of  James  Buchanan,  and  while  Judge  Black  was  Attorney 
General,  and  in  Buchanan's  cabinet,  war  was  allowed  to  be  made 
upon  the  United  States  with  impunity;  humiliating  contracts 


432  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

for  armistice  were  made  with  rebels  with  arms  in  their  hands; 
the  army  of  the  United  States  was  scattered  from  one  end  to  the 
other  of  its  vast  territory,  in  order  that  it  might  be  away  at  the 
critical  moment ;  every  sea  possessed  an  American  vessel  except 
the  waters  of  our  own  coast ;  no  arms  were  prepared,  no  precau 
tions  were  taken;  the  warnings  of  Winfield  Scott  were  disregard 
ed  ;  every  arsenal  was  left  a  prey  to  the  insidious  assaults  of  the 
enemy,  whose  designs  were  known  to  the  President.  The  Demo 
cratic  party  having  taken  care  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union 
in  that  way,  we  accept  as  the  interpretation  of  their  platform  the 
"heretofore"  of  Buchanan's  administration,  and  say  that  their  de 
fense  and  protection  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  mean  its 
submission  to  Southern  dictation,  its  destruction  before  Southern 
rebellion,  dissolution  and  death,  and  not  preservation.  (Great  ap 
plause.)  And  when  we  go  one  step  farther  into  that  remarkable 
document,  and  read  there  that  after  four  years  of  unsuccessful 
war — -justice,  humanity,  and  religion  require  that  there  should  be 
a  cessation  of  hostilities  with  a  view  to  the  calling  of  a  Conven 
tion,  or  "  some  other  peaceable  means,"  to  end  the  war  and  re 
store  the  Union,  we  have  an  explanation  that  needs  no  comment 
as  to  what  the  first  declaration  meant.  "  Cease  the  war"  means 
to  lay  down  your  arms,  to  lift  your  blockade,  to  relax  the  sinews 
of  your  arm,  to  induce  your  people  to  believe  that  peace  is  here, 
to  treat  upon  equal  terms  with  the  rebellious  enemies  of  the  re 
public,  to  open  the  door  for  foreign  recognition,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  foreign  intervention.  And,  after  all  that  has  been 
done,  if  the  rebels  refuse  your  "  Convention  or  other  peaceable 
means,"  where  are  we  ?  How  will  you  ever  take  up  the  mus 
ket  after  it  has  been  laid  down  ?  How  will  you  ever  collect 
your  army  when  it  has  once  been  allowed  to  return  or  almost  dis 
banded  on  furlough  ?  How  will  you  ever  strengthen  the  sinews 
of  the  nation  up  to  the  height  of  reopening  the  war  after  once 
you  have  dropped  the  sword  from  your  hands  ?  Why,  fellow- 
citizens,  they  who  propose  that  know  as  well  as  I  know  that  an 
armistice  means  peace — that  the  cessation  of  the  war  means  the 
end  of  the  war — that  the  end  of  the  war  means  the  end  of  coercive 
measures  for  the  restoration  of  the  republic;  and  when  they  once 
propose  that  an  armistice  shall  be  instituted,  without  even  saying 
that  if  its  purposes  fail  the  sword  shall  again  be  drawn,  they  tell 
us,  in  the  most  distinct  language,  that  their  purpose  is  to  stop  the 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  433 

war  and  take  the  consequences;  they  tell  us  that  their  purpose  is 
to  stop  the  war  and  not  look  beyond  at  the  consequences  of  the 
stoppage  of  the  war.  Peace  is  what  they  want,  and  that  is  all. 
And  when  we  turn  to  the  letter  of  acceptance  of  General  M'Clel- 
lan,  there  is  a  repetition  substantially  of  the  platform,  but  with  no 
addition  to  it.  He  is  in  favor,  as  the  Convention  is  in  favor,  of 
"perpetuating  the  Union ;"  he  thinks,  as  they  think,  that  it  ought 
to  be  perpetuated ;  but  he  nowhere  says  that  after  an  armistice 
and  a  failure  to  agree,  he  is  in  favor  of  taking  up  the  sword.  It 
may  be  that  he  is.  I  can  easily  believe  that  a  general  might  de 
sire  to  be  commander-in-chief  of  half  a  million  of  men.  But  who 
and  what  is  M'Clellan  ?  He  is  what  his  party  friends  make  him 
—what  the  men  are  who  elect  him — what  they  are  who  stand  be 
hind  him.  Fernando  Wood  has  told  you  that  whatever  the  pri 
vate  opinions  of  the  candidate  may  be,  when  he  is  once  nominated 
and  elected,  he  will  think,  and  speak,  and  act  as  the  body  of  the 
great  party  that  elected  him  may  desire  that  he  should  think,  and 
speak,  and  act.  "He  will  be,"  says  Mr.  Wood,  "our  agent,  the 
creature  of  our  voice."  And  you  all  know  what  the  voice  of 
Fernando  Wood  is.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  Fernando  Wood, 
a  man  who  in  the  better  days  of  the  republic  nobody  would  have 
thought  it  worth  while  to  name  at  a  public  meeting,  has  now  be 
come  one  of  the  mischievous  and  poisonous  reptiles  that  are  bit 
ing  the  republic  to  death.  (Applause.)  Alexander  Long,  of 
Ohio,  Clement  Vallandigham,  of  ill-omened  fame— these  are  the 
men  who  are  supporting  him ;  these  are  the  men  who  look  to 
high  offices  under  him ;  these  are  the  men  who  represent  the  great 
mass  and  body  of  the  so-called  Peace  Democracy ;  and  if  there 
be  any  thing  but  a  Peace  Democracy  any  where  that  is  not  now 
supporting  Abraham  Lincoln,  I  do  not  know  who  the  man  is,  or 
where  he  is.  (Applause.) 

I  never  could  find  a  Peace  Democrat  in  Congress  who  would 
do  any  thing  except  swell  a  majority  when  his  vote  was  not 
needed,  and  leave  you  to  be  defeated  when  his  vote  was  required 
to  make  a  majority.  Place  them  in  the  majority,  and  they  are 
all  peace  men.  One  would  like  the  war  to  go  on,  for  there  are 
pickings,  and  stealings,  and  plunder  in  it ;  another  of  them  would 
like  it  to  go  on  because  possibly  he  might  have  some  chance  of 
military  fame ;  but  the  body  of  them,  the  men  who  must  form 
the  Congress,  the  men  who  must  vote  the  money,  the  men  who 

E  E 


434  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

must  organize  the  army,  the  men  who  stand  outside  of  Congress 
and  send  them  there,  are  for  peace ;  they  are  against  taxation ; 
they  are  opposed  to  paying  two  cents  a  box  for  matches.  (Laugh 
ter.)  They  are  the  people  who  are  guilty  of  the  wretched  folly 
and  hypocrisy  of  placing  side  by  side  the  columns  of  taxation  of 
Buchanan's  administration  and  the  present  administration,  as  if 
every  body  were  as  big  a  fool  as  the  poor  Democrats  whom  they 
want  to  cheat  by  that  contrivance.  (Applause.)  And  yet  they 
are  the  men  whom  you  are  to  place  in  power  with  M'Clellan ; 
they  are  the  men  who  are  to  hold  his  hands  in  the  struggle — who 
are  to  support  him  with  men  and  money — who  are  to  guide  his 
policy !  To  repeal  every  law  on  the  statute-book  for  the  carrying 
on  of  the  war  would  be  their  first  act  whenever  they  should  get  a 
majority  of  both  houses.  Having  a  majority  of  one  House  only, 
they  would  palsy  the  majority  in  the  other  House  that  might  be 
desirous  even  of  furnishing  the  government  with  the  means  for 
carrying  on  the  war.  They  would  strike  immediately  from  your 
armies  150,000  or  200,000  negro  soldiers  for  fear  they  would  dis 
band  the  rest  of  the  army !  They  would  remove  the  suspension 
of  the  habeas  corpus,  in  order  that  Democratic  traitors  might  walk 
at  large  and  communicate  with  the  enemy.  (Applause.)  There  is 
no  measure  necessary  to  the  conduct  of  the  war  that  they  are  not 
already  pledged  to  destroy.  Their  canvass  is  against  the  meas 
ures  of  the  war,  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  come 
to  the  solemn  conclusion  that  they  who  are  not  in  favor  of  the 
means  of  carrying  on  the  war  are  not  in  favor  of  carrying  on  the 
war  at  all ;  that  they  who  are  for  paralyzing  the  arm  of  the  gov 
ernment  by  stripping  it  of  the  needful  legislation  for  the  conduct 
of  the  War,  can  not  be  trusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  war;  and, 
as  rational  men,  they  turn  their  back  on  those  who  profess  before 
high  Heaven  that  that  is  their  purpose,  and  turn  to  men  who  at 
least  profess  to  be  willing  to  carry  on  the  war — who  at  least  have 
struggled  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  be  it  poor  or  great,  for  four 
years  to  carry  it  on — who  at  least  have  accomplished  some  re 
sults,  and  if  they  are  not  stripped  of  power  now  by  men  who, 
under  the  disguise  of  pretending  to  be  in  favor  of  the  war,  are  re 
ally  against  it,  will,  in  a  reasonable  time,  put  an  end  to  it.  (Great 
applause.)  Is  there  any  other  way,  fellow-citizens,  of  restoring 
the  integrity  of  the  republic  than  by  the  bloody  path  of  war  ? 
Believe  Jeff  Davis  when  he  tells  you  that  his  only  terms  of  peace 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  435 

are  "  independence,"  and  that  is  only  a  new  word  for  the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union ;  believe  the  men  from  one  end  to  the  other  of 
the  rebel  Confederacy  who  tell  you  that  all  they  want  is  to  be 
"let  alone,"  and  "let  alone"  means  that  the  United  States  shall 
march  out  of  and  abdicate  more  than  one  half  of  its  territory. 
They  tell  you  that  they  are  not  struggling  because  of  slavery ; 
they  are  struggling  for  independence,  and  "  independence"  means 
the  destruction  of  the  American  nationality.  If,  therefore,  there 
be  any  way  of  persuading  them  to  make  peace  on  other  terms 
than  those  of  independence,  let  some  one  arise  and  point  out  the 
public  man  or  the  mass  of  the  population  any  where  in  the  South 
that  has  declared  a  willingness  to  make  peace  on  those  terms. 
(Applause.)  They  are  now  stretching  a  long  ringer  all  through 
the  United  States,  intermeddling  in  our  presidential  election. 
They  utter  nightly  prayers  for  the  success  of  M'Clellan.  They 
hope  that  the  division  upon  the  presidential  election  will  ulti 
mately  place  some  one  in  power  who  will  make  terms  that  they 
will  agree  to.  Has  ever  any  body  heard  them  say,  "  If  you  will 
elect  M'Clellan  we  will  submit  to  the  terms  of  the  old  Constitu 
tion  as  it  is,"  in  the  slang  phrase  of  the  modern  Democrats ;  that 
they  are  willing  to  accept  the  old  "  Union  as  it  was,"  in  the  slang 
phrase  of  the  modern  Democrats ;  that  they  are  willing  to  take 
any  compromise ;  that  they  are  willing  to  take  slavery  in  the 
whole  of  the  Territories  of  the  United  States;  that  they  are  will 
ing  to  take  the  incorporation  of  slavery  forever  into  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  itself;  that  they  are  willing  upon  any 
terms  whatever  to  reunite  with  you  ?  Their  question,  gentlemen, 
is  that  of  severance  and  independence,  and  the  Democrats  are 
perpetually  mumbling  to  themselves  some  unintelligible  words 
about  "compromise"  with  people  who  say  "we  want  no  compro 
mise;"  terms  with  people  who  say  "our  terms  are  independence" 
— concessions  to  people  who  say  "  we  will  accept  no  concessions 
from  your  hands ;"  union  to  people  who  say  "  death  rather." 
(Applause.)  Then  there  is,  gentlemen,  but  one  path,  I  say,  out  of 
this  difficulty.  I  have  said  so  from  the  fall  of  1860  to  this  time. 
I  said  so  before  a  sword  was  drawn.  I  said  so  after  the  secession 
ordinances  were  passed,  and  when  the  old  fogy  Convention  was 
mumbling  over  terms  of  compromise  in  what  they  called  a  "Peace 
Congress."  (Applause.)  I  said  so  when  two  great  committees 
of  the  two  houses  of  Congress  were  straining  their  nerves  to  get 


436  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

something  to  force  down  the  rebels'  throats,  which  they  swore 
they  would  throw  up  as  soon  as  it  was  forced  down.  There  has 
never  been  a  day  that  any  body,  who  could  see  beyond  the  length 
of  his  nose,  since  South  Carolina  took  the  first  step  in  1860,  after 
the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  did  not  know  that  the  only 
path  to  unity  in  this  country  is  over  bloody  battle-fields;  and, 
gentlemen,  they  are  before  you  yet.  (Great  applause.)  I  pray 
you  be  under  no  more  delusions.  We  have  now  this  awful,  deso 
lating  campaign  because  the  government  would  persist  in  dream 
ing  all  last  winter  that  the  rebellion  was  ended.  And  if  they  put 
on  the  night-cap  and  dream  again  this  winter,  Lee  will  be  before 
Grant  as  strong  next  spring  as  he  was  last  spring.  You  may  be 
near  the  end  of  the  rebellion,  but  there  is  many  a  sharp  struggle 
before  you  yet,  and  the  only  way  to  end  it  is  to  let  the  rebels 
have  no  rest,  to  press  on  them  day  by  day,  and  night  by  night, 
filling  up  the  gulf  between  you  and  them  with  your  dead  sons 
and  brothers  if  necessary,  but  remembering  that  every  week  of 
armistice,  every  day  of  delay,  every  month  of  winter  -  quarters 
means  other  hecatombs  to  fill  up  the  gap  in  your  march.  (Tre 
mendous  applause.)  And  now  we  hear  from  the  advocates  of 
M'Clellan  grave  objections  to  the  conduct  of  the  President  and 
the  conduct  of  his  administration  as  reasons  why  the  Eepublican 
party  should  not  be  trusted — not  the  particular  individual,  but 
the  Eepublican  party  that  stand  at  his  back,  defends  what  he  has 
done  well,  deplores  what  he  has  done  ill  or  failed  to  do,  and  is  re 
solved  that  he  shall  do  better  in  the  future.  (Applause.)  The 
Eepublican  party-  stands  at  his  back  and  takes  the  responsibility 
of  what  has  passed  heretofore,  and  means  to  meet  the  objections 
that  are  made ;  and  while  they  admit,  as  in  my  judgment  they 
must  admit,  that  there  are  many  things  that  have  been  done 
which  ought  not  to  have  been  done,  and  which  a  wiser  policy 
and  greater  acquaintance  with  statesmanship  would  have  saved 
us  from,  yet  the  substantial  things  of  government  have  been  done 
(great  applause) — done  better  than  our  antagonists  could  do  them 
if  they  wanted,  or  would  do  if  they  were  allowed  to  attempt. 
We  hear  dolorous,  objections  about  the  violations  of  personal  lib 
erty  ;  we  hear  objections  about  weak  men  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  armies ;  we  hear  objections  about  the  lack  of  vigor  in  the 
conduct  of  the  war ;  and  the  only  arguments  to  be  deduced  from 
such  imputations  as  those  is  not  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  not  so  great, 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  437 

or  so  able,  or  so  wise  as  somebody  else,  but  that  George  B.  M'Clel 
lan  ought  to  be  put  in  his  place.  The  question  is  not  whether 
Mr.  Lincoln  has  done  the  best  that  any  mind  could  conceive,  nor 
even  the  best  that  he  himself  could  do,  nor  whether  what  he  has 
done  is  absolutely  right,  or  absolutely  in  accordance  with  law ; 
but  the  question  is  whether  his  opponent  would  do  better.  "He 
has,"  says  a  distinguished  senator  of  Maryland,  in  a  most  elaborate 
and  able  speech  in  Brooklyn  the  other  day  in  behalf  of  M'Clellan, 
"  appointed  weak  and  incompetent  men  to  the  command  of  the 
armies."  I  say  yes,  and  M'Clellan  at  the  head  of  them.  (GreatN 
applause.)  They  say  that  he  has  punished  and  excluded  from 
office  men  merely  because  they  were  the  friends  of  George  B. 
M'Clellan.  I  say  yes,  and  Fitz  John  Porter  was  one  of  them. 
(Great  applause.)  They  say  that  the  war  has  not  been  conducted 
with  that  energy  with  which  it  ought  to  have  been  conducted, 
and  which  ought  long  since  to  have  stamped  out  the  rebellion. 
I  say  yes,  and  the  greatest  of  all  failures  was  the  failure  of  George 
B.  M'Clellan,  who  wasted  the  largest  army  the  republic  has  ever 
assembled,  in  idleness,  in  and  around  the  City  of  "Washington,  for 
nearly  eight  months,  when  not  one  third  his  number  of  enemies 
were  within  thirty-five  miles  in  his  front,  and  he  did  not  dare  to 
feel  them  with  a  regiment  of  his  cavalry  to  ascertain  their  num 
ber.  (Applause.)  Yes,  opportunities  have  been  lost.  There  was 
no  opportunity  equal  to  the  opportunity  of  George  B.  M'Clellan 
in  the  fall  of  1861  and  the  spring  of  1862.  "Lost  opportunities !" 
Ay,  a  greater  one  when  a  broken  and  flying  army,  with  a  vast 
river  in  its  rear,  was  allowed  to  escape  without  pursuit,  and  that 
was  by  George  B.  M'Clellan  after  Antietam.  (Applause.)  It  may 
be  that  the  war  has  been  badly  conducted.  It  is  certain  that  the 
worst  parts  of  its  conduct  have  been  those  parts  which  have  been 
attributed  to  George  B.  M'Clellan.  It  is  certain  that  there  have 
been  failures.  There  have  been  no  failures  so  disastrous,  so  con 
tinued,  so  inexcusable  as  the  failure  of  the  Peninsular  campaign. 
(Applause.)  There  have  been  failures.  There  has  been  no  fail 
ure  that  rested  on  the  good  faith  of  any  officer,  excepting  Buell's 
in  Kentucky,  and  M'Clellan's  and  Fitz  John  Porter's  failure  at 
the  second  Bull  Eun  battle.  (Great  applause.)  Concede  that  the 
conduct  of  the  war  has  been  weak ;  agree  to  every  thing  that  our 
antagonists  say ;  the  fact  that  the  war  has  continued  for  four  years 
without  the  rebellion  being  broken  is  because  George  B.  M'Clel- 


438  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

Ian,  with  the  uncontrolled  disposition  of  all  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  for  nearly  a  year,  left  it,  as  it  is,  unbroken.  (Ap 
plause.)  We  are  told  of  violations  of  the  right  of  personal  liber 
ty  !  Personal  liberty  has  been  invaded !  If  they  had  said  that 
the  personal  liberty  of  somebody,  whose  liberty  ought  to  be  re 
spected,  had  been  invaded,  there  would  have  been  some  point  in 
it.  (Applause.)  If  they  had  said  that  somebody  had  been  con 
fined  who  ought  to  have  been  at  large,  I  would  have  listened  to 
the  argument.  If  they  had  said  that  some  loyal  man  had  been 
maliciously  arrested  and  maliciously  confined,  without  a  doubt 
upon  the  President's  mind,  and  without  a  pretext  of  public  rea 
son,  then  I  would  agree  that  the  President  ought  to  be  impeached. 
But  when  they  say  that  the  right  of  personal  liberty  has  been  in 
vaded  because  men  have  been  arrested  without  legal  process,  I 
beg  leave  to  say  that  there  is  no  law  or  Constitution  in  the  United 
States  which  says  that  nobody  shall  be  arrested  excepting  by  ju 
dicial  process.  The  solemn  language  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  that  "no  man  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property  without  due  process  of  law."  ''Property"  and  "lib 
erty"  stand  in  the  same  category  with  "life."  How  many  men 
has  Abraham  Lincoln  shot  down  according  to  law  because  they 
stood  in  gray  clothes  before  men  in  blue  clothes  ?  What  sheriff's 
precept  goes  before  Grant's  cannon  balls  ?  What  marshal  of  the 
United  States  is  required  to  give  him  liberty  to  fire  ?  What  jury 
of  inquiry  is  summoned  to  ascertain  whether  the  flag  that  is  float 
ing  on  the  horizon  is  an  innocent  rag,  or  the  emblem  of  rebel 
armed  force  ?  What  antecedent  judicial  securities  took  place  be 
fore  20,000  men  laid  down  and  died  at  Gettysburg,  or  60,000  men 
were  killed  or  wounded  in  the  campaign  from  this  spring  to  the 
present  time  from  the  Rapidan  down  to  Petersburg?  Then,  so 
far  as  life  is  concerned,  there  is  a  law  that  is  above  judicial  pro 
cess.  Nobody  is  fool  enough  to  deny  that.  Is  there  a  law  above 
judicial  process,  with  reference  likewise  to  liberty?  If  there  be 
not,  why  do  you  not  turn  loose  the  rebel  prisoners  ?  Why  do 
you  keep  them  confined  for  a  day  ?  What  precept  has  ever  or 
dered  their  confinement?  Who  sends  the  officers  up  to  the  lakes? 
Who  crowds  them  into  our  forts  ?  Who  makes  them  swarm  be 
low  here  in  Fort  Delaware?  Is  there  a  judgment  upon  them,  or 
is  it  that  the  law  of  the  land  says  that  men  found  in  arms  and 
seized  shall  be  held,  and  that  the  President,  finding  them  in  arms, 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  439 

shall  hold  them  upon  his  own  judgment?  (Applause.)  Are  we 
to  be  told  that  only  those  actually  caught  in  battle  array  shall  be 
so  treated  ?  May  men  furnish  the  enemy  with  munitions  of  war, 
or  clothes,  or  information,  or  give  them  aid  and  comfort,  or  send 
them  medicines,  and  yet  not  be  within  the  range  of  indictment  for 
treason,  or,  at  the  option  of  the  country,  the  military  security  of  a 
discretionary  arrest?  From  George  Washington's  time  down  to 
the  present  day  no  man  has  ever  doubted  the  legality  of  these 
things  until  the  modern  Democracy,  having  too  many  traitors  in 
its  midst,  found  it  convenient  to  have  these  principles  applied  in 
practice.  (Applause.)  "  But,"  it  is  said,  "  the  habeas  corpus  has 
been  suspended  illegally  by  the  President."  I  agree  that  it  was 
suspended  illegally  by  the  President  the  first  year  of  the  war,  and 
I  warned  him  and  his  party  friends  of  the  illegality  of,  and  the 
inevitable  reaction  in  public  opinion  which  would  come  if  that 
were  not  corrected.  The  reaction  came  in  the  fall  of  1862,  and 
they  supplied  the  omission  early  in  1863  by  going  to  Congress  to 
ask  them  to  pass  the  requisite  law  to  suspend  it ;  the  law  was 
passed,  but  still  the  howl  goes  up  the  habeas  corpus  is  illegally 
suspended !  But,  gentlemen,  suppose  the  President  has  oppressed, 
has  illegally  arrested  individuals,  has  committed  all  the  oppres 
sions  that  are  ascribed  to  him,  our  opponents  propose  to  place 
George  B.  M'Clellan  in  his  place  on  his  "  record,"  ostentatiously 
referred  to  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  as  indicating  the  course  of 
his  own  policy  hereafter  referred  to,  to  supply  the  deficiency,  to 
get  rid  of  the  different  points  of  the  Chicago  Platform,  and  the 
first  man  that  took  a  step  in  the  direction  of  arresting  without  ju 
dicial  process  was  George  B.  M'Clellan  himself.  Here  is  his  order 
to  General  Banks,  in  September,  1861 : 

"Major  General  X.  P.  Banks?: 

"GENERAL, — After  a  full  consultation  with  the  President,  Secretaries  of  State, 
War,  etc.,  it  has  been  decided  to  effect  the  operation  proposed*  for  the  17th.  Ar 
rangements  have  been  made  to  have  a  government  steamer  at  Annapolis  to  receive 
the  prisoners  and  carry  them  to  their  destination. 

"  Some  four  or  five  of  the  chief  men  in  the  affair  are  to  be  arrested  to-day. 
When  they  meet  on  the  1 7th  you  will  have  every  thing  prepared  to  arrest  the  whole 
party,  and  be  sure  that  none  escape. 

"It  is  understood  that  you  will  arrange  with  General  Dix  and  Governor  Seward 
t!)2  modus  ojterandi.  It  has  been  intimated  to  me  that  the  meeting  might  take 

*  The  arrest  of  the  members  of  the  seditious  Legislature  of  Maryland. 


440  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

place  on  the  14th ;  please  be  prepared.     I  would  be  glad  to  have  you  advise  me 
frequently  of  your  arrangements  in  regard  to  this  very  important  matter. 

"  If  it  is  successfully  carried  out  it  will  go  far  toward  breaking  the  back-bone  of  the 
rebellion.  It  will  probably  be  well  to  have  a  special  train  quietly  prepared  to  take 
the  prisoners  to  Annapolis. 

"I  leave  this  exceedingly  important  affair  to  your  tact  and  discretion — the  abso 
lute  necessity  of  secrecy  and  success. 

''With  the  highest  regard,  I  am,  dear  general,  your  sincere  friend, 

"GEORGE  B.  M'CLELLAX,  Major  General  U.  S.  A." 

The  reason  assigned  was  that  the  arrest  would  "  go  far  toward 
breaking  the  back-bone  of  the  rebellion."  We  who  support  the 
President  think  so  too.  (Applause.)  While  there  have  been 
cases  of  arrests  which  ought  not  to  have  been  made,  and  some 
which,  in  my  judgment,  were  not  justifiable,  and  many  which 
were  indiscreet,  in  my  opinion  more  men  have  been  improperly 
discharged  than  have  been  improperly  arrested.  (Great  applause.) 
But  it  is  certain  that  on  M'Clellan's  "record"  he  is  not  the  man 
to  impeach  the  conduct  of  the  President  in  that  particular. 
"  State  rights,"  too,  were  here  defied,  and  a  sovereign  Legislature 
arrested — arrested  by  George  B.  M'Clellan,  whom  his  friend  Mr. 
Attorney  General  Black  only  last  night  was  defending  and  advo 
cating  in  this  city ;  and  he  imputed  to  the  administration  an  en 
tire  deviation  from  every  thing  that  had  a  precedent  in  American 
history,  especially  upon  the  subject  of  State  rights  and  personal 
liberty ;  and  he  did  that  to  induce  the  people  to  take  George  B. 
M'Clellan  for  President,  who  set  the  only  example  that  has  been 
exhibited  any  where  on  the  American  continent  of  the  arrest  of 
a  Legislature  in  solemn  session,  in  time  of  peace,  at  that  place,  and 
in  that  State ;  for  there  was  no  armed  foe  in  Maryland  when  that 
Legislature  was  arrested.  It  was  swarming  with  traitors,  but 
traitors  are  the  men  they  want  to  be  free  from  arrest.  They  were 
not  armed ;  they  were  not  levying  war ;  they  were  not  threaten 
ing  to  levy  war ;  they  were  too  pusillanimous  to  attempt  it ;  they 
were  passing  resolutions,  receiving  reports,  declaring  that  the  op 
pression  of  the  government  was  too  great  to  be  resisted.  They 
were  safe  traitors,  and  they  are  the  men  that  George  B.  M'Clellan 
arrested.  But  there  is  another  objection.  It  is  stated  in  the  Chi 
cago  Platform  that  military  power  has  been  brought  to  bear  ille 
gally  upon  elections.  That  is  the  imputation  made  by  Mr.  Sena 
tor  Johnson,  in  his  speech  in  Brooklyn  the  other  day,  arguing  in 
behalf  of  George  B.  M'Clellan.  Who  set  the  example  ?  On  Oc- 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  441 

tober  29, 1861,  this  order  was  issued  from  the  head-quarters  of 
General  M'Clellan,  by  his  order : 

"  Head-quarters  Army  of  the  Potomac,  Washington,  October  29, 1861. 

"  GENERAL, — There  is  an  apprehension  among  Union  citizens  in  many  parts  of 
Maryland  at  an  attempt  of  interference  with  their  rights  of  suffrage  by  disunion 
citizens  on  the  occasion  of  the  election  to  take  place  on  the  6th  of  November  next. 

"In  order  to  prevent  this,  the  major  general  commanding  directs  that  you  send 
detachments  of  a  sufficient  number  of  men  to  different  points  in  your  vicinity  where 
the  elections  are  to  be  held,  to  protect  the  Union  voters,  and  to  see  that  no  Disunion- 
ists  are  allowed  to  intimidate  them,  or  in  any  way  to  interfere  with  their  rights. 

"  He  also  desires  you  to  arrest" — 

By  what  writ  ? 

"He  also  desires  you  to  arrest  and  hold  in  confinement  till  after  the  election  all 
Disunionists  who  are  known  to  have  returned  from  Virginia  recently,  and  wJio 
show  themselves  at  the  polls,  and  to  guard  effectually  against  any  invasion  of  the 
peace  and  orcler  of  the  election.  For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  these  instructions, 
you  are  authorized  to  suspend  the  habeas  corpus.  General  Stone  has  received  similar 
instructions  to  these.  You  will  please  confer  with  him  as  to  the  particular  points 
that  each  shall  take  the  control  of. 

"  I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"K.  B.  MARCY,  Chief  of  Staff. 
"Major  General  N.  P.  Banks." 

That  was  the  first  example  in  the  United  States,  during  this 
war,  of  an  attempt  to  prevent  rebels  from  voting.  He  uses  a 
phrase  there  wider  than  any  order  that  has  ever  been  issued  here 
tofore.  He  speaks  of  "Disunionists;"  that  is,  men  who  entertain 
disunion  opinions.  No  other  order  has  ever  gone  farther  than  to 
say  that  men  who  have  been  in  arms  against  the  United  States, 
or  who  have  given  aid,  comfort,  or  encouragement  to  the  enemy, 
shall  be  allowed  to  vote.  Of  Disunionists,  we  have  twenty  thou 
sand  in  Maryland ;  of  men  who  have  given  aid  and  comfort,  we 
have  only  perhaps  two  or  three,  or  four  thousand.  General 
Schenck's  order  stopped  at  the  latter.  General  M'Clellan's  order 
covered  them  all  (applause) ;  and  at  that  election  Senator  John 
son  was  himself  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  and  was  elected, 
and  never  complained  of  the  order.  By  that  Legislature  he  was 
chosen  to  the  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  that  he  now 
holds,  and  never  complained  of  that  order.  And  yet  he  is  the 
gentleman  who  makes  that  imputation  against  President  Lincoln 
in  behalf  of  the  originator  of  the  invasion  of  the  freedom  of  the 
elective  franchise  in  Maryland !  (Great  applause.)  Military  at 
elections !  Were  I  an  advocate  of  M'Clellan  I  would  seek  some 


442  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

other  topic  of  imputation;  were  I  a  Democrat  I  would  never 
mention  it,  for  fear  the  bloody  ghosts  of  the  thirty  men  and  wom 
en  who  were  shot  down  while  peacefully  walking  in  the  streets 
of  Washington,  in  1857,  by  the  orders  of  James  Buchanan,  would 
rise  and  point  their  ghastly  fingers  at  me.  Still  less  as  a  Mary 
land  Democrat,  if  I  were  one,  would  I  ever  refer  to  it,  when  I  re 
membered  that  Governor  Ligon,  finding  it  impossible  to  control 
otherwise  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  American  party  of  Balti 
more,  summoned  six  thousand  soldiers  to  control  them  on  the  day 
of  election,  and  failed.  And  of  all  the  men  in  the  wide  world  to 
urge  that  argument,  the  last  man  is  the  Hon.  Reverdy  Johnson, 
who  gave  the  opinion  to  Governor  Ligon  that  it  was  legal  to  do 
so !  If  any  one  has  any  curiosity  in  reference  to  that  sort  of  lit 
erature,  here  is  the  opinion.  Of  what  sort  of  stuff  are  these  men 
made,  that  they  venture  to  fling  in  our  faces  their  own  vices,  or 
their  complicity  with  ours  ?  It  is  the  most  overwhelming  of  de 
fenses  of  the  conduct  of  the  administration  against  things  that  I 
myself  think  unadvisable  and  frequently  illegal,  to  find  that  its 
antagonists  are  steeped  up  to  their  elbows  in  the  only  crimes  the}- 
can  cast  upon  it.  If  they,  not  responsible  for  the  supreme  direc 
tion  of  affairs,  yet  entertained  the  opinion  that  these  things  were 
allowable  when  the  pressure  of  the  necessity  of  the  public  admin 
istration  was  not  on  them,  how  can  they  blame  with  any  reason 
those  who,  being  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  affairs,  have  re 
sorted  to  the  very  measures  that  they  have  themselves  executed 
and  vindicated  ?  (Applause.) 

"  But,"  our  opponents  say,  "  we  will  carry  on  the  war  on  Chris 
tian  principles  I"  (Laughter.)  The  only  principle  of  war  that  I 
remember  to  have  read  of  in  the  Christian  dispensation  is  that,  if 
one  smites  you  on  the  right  cheek,  you  should  turn  unto  him  the 
left  also.  I  take  it  that  is  the  Christian  principle  upon  which  the 
Democrats  contemplate  carrying  on  this  war.  (Laughter  and  ap 
plause.)  "  Christian  principles."  When  they  refer  to  the  con 
duct  of  Christian  nations  in  war,  they  must  be  taken  to  refer  to 
some  of  the  great  nations  that  have  waged  war  under  great  emer 
gencies  like  these ;  and  if  so,  I  ask  their  historians  (for  they  are 
learned  every  now  and  then)  whether  they  remember  the  rebel 
lion  in  India,  when  Christian  England  shot  the  King  of  Delhi  in 
cold  blood,  in  his  own  palace,  unarmed,  after  the  capture  of  the 
city,  and  blew  from  the  mouths  of  their  cannons  men  who  had 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  443 

only  rebelled  to  get  their  natural  rights,  against  a  foreign  nation. 
(Applause.)  Or,  if  they  do  not  like  the  morals  of  Protestant  En 
gland,  do  they  remember  the  day  when  Catholic  France  by  her 
marshals  smoked  to  death  in  an  Algerian  cave  an  arrny  of  her 
rebel  enemies  ?  Or,  if  they  do  not  like  Catholic  France,  will  they 
take  Greek  Eussia,  and  tell  me  whether  they  wish  to  apply  the 
Christian  principles  that  now  make  Poland  smoke  with  blood  of 
her  sons  for  claiming  their  national  right  ?  Or,  if  these  are  not 
the  "  Christian  principles"  to  which  they  refer,  will  they  point  to 
some  other  war  conducted  by  greater  and  more  Christian  nations 
upon  more  humane  principles,  and  point  out  to  us  the  way  that 
we  shall  follow  them  ?  Which  of  these  things  have  we  done  ? 
Gentlemen,  after  some  small  reading  of  history  by  way  of  amuse 
ment,  I  desire  to  challenge  those  learned  pundits,  and  I  say  that 
they  can  produce  nowhere,  in  all  the  range  of  history,  sacred  or 
profane,  ancient  or  modern,  any  war  of  four  years'  duration  where 
one  half  the  men  were  arranged  on  either  side  that  have  here 
been  ranged  in  battle,  any  one  year  of  which  did  not  exceed  all 
the  atrocities  that  the  United  States  troops  have  committed  in 
four  years  of  war — none — none  whatever.  (Applause.)  I  have 
mentioned  the  recent  instances.  Who  would  think  of  mention 
ing  the  great  desolation  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  that  left  Ger 
many  a  waste  ?  Who  would  mention  the  seventy  years'  war  of 
the  Netherlands,  where  the  gallows  followed  the  advancing  Span 
ish  troops  ?  In  the  civil  wars  of  England,  did  not  execution  and 
blood  follow  victory  ?  There  never  has  been  a  war  conducted 
upon  principles  that  could  be  called  so  nearly  Christian,  except 
ing  that  the  only  Christian  principle  I  can  apply  to  the  conduct 
of  war  is  that  it  shall  be  short,  and  sharp,  and  merciful.  (Ap 
plause.)  And  the  danger  of  this  war  has  been  that  the  President 
could  not  rise  to  the  height  of  the  emergency,  and  steel  his  heart 
against  what  was  pity  in  the  individual,  but  cruelty  in  the  ruler. 
Ay,  many  a  man  sleeps  this  day  in  a  soldier's  grave  because  the 
President  would  not  execute  military  law  upon  deserters;  and 
many  a  bloody  battle  has  been  lost,  and  many  a  regiment  torn  to 
pieces,  because  traitors  were  allowed  to  go  free  in  the  open  day, 
and  carry  information  of  the  march  of  our  troops,  and  of  their 
numbers,  to  the  enemy.  Gentlemen,  war  is  war.  No  other  word 
is  its  equivalent.  It  needs  no  definition.  It  is  the  greatest  de 
struction  in  the  shortest  time.  That  is  mercy,  and  that  is  wisdom. 


444  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  have  one  other  word  to  say  to  you  about  the 
Chicago  Platform.  It  proposes,  in  certain  contingencies,  that  the 
Democrats  shall  rebel,  and  I  do  not  think  that  an  idle  threat.  I 
desire  to  treat  it  as  I  feel  with  regard  to  it — as  a  contingency  that 
may  not  be  very  far  off.  We  have  the  Democratic  party  in  arms 
at  the  South ;  we  have  had  them  here  in  sympathy  with  the 
armed  Democrats  of  the  South  ever  since  the  war  broke  out,  and 
if  the  leaders  get  the  opportunity,  they  will,  as  they  have  hereto 
fore  tried  to  do,  put  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North  in  arms 
with  them.  There  have  been  some  efforts  in  that  direction  al 
ready.  "We  know  that  when  M'Clellan  was  removed  from  com 
mand,  such  was  the  temper  of  a  certain  portion  of  his  officers,  so 
contemptuous  were  they  with  regard  to  the  government  at  Wash 
ington,  so  devoted  personally  to  M'Clellan,  so  outraged  at  the  ex 
ertion  of  the  simple  prerogative  of  the  President,  that  they  ad 
vised  him  to  march  to  Washington  ;  and  these  men  were  not  de 
nounced,  and  have  not  been  punished  to  this  day ;  but  his  friends 
claim  it  as  a  virtue  that  he  did  not  do  what  they  suggested ! 
Judge  of  a  man  who  requires  that  his  virtue  should  be  found  in 
refusing  to  violate  his  oath  and  draw  his  sword  against  the  gov 
ernment  that  placed  it  in  his  hands,  and  who  could  be  silent  about 
such  a  suggestion !  Then,  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  at  Gettysburg, 
we  had  the  rebellion  in  New  York — they  call  it  mob,  I  call  it  a 
rebellion  —  Seymour's  rebellion ;  the  rebellion  that  Seymour's 
"  friends"  and  M'Clellan's  friends  got  up  to  resist  the  arms  of  the 
United  States,  or  perhaps  it  was  to  help  carry  on  the  war  by  aid 
ing  the  draft.  (Laughter.)  That  was  stamped  out  rudely,  " ille 
gally,"  our  Democratic  friends  would  say,  for  men  were  shot 
without  a  sheriff's  process.  But,  legally  or  illegally,  it  was  ex 
tinguished  effectually.  (Cheers.)  The  next  thing  we  hear  of  is 
a  tremendous  struggle  in  Indiana  and  Illinois,  a  political  struggle 
for  the  possession  of  those  States.  Gentlemen  acquainted  with 
them  said,  "The  loss  of  Indiana  is  not  the  loss  of  an  election,  it  is 
the  loss  of  a  State  to  the  Union ;"  and  scarcely  had  a  gentleman 
made  that  remark  to  me,  being  himself  a  resident  of  Indiana,  than 
arms  hidden  were  discovered,  the  tracks  of  a  great  conspiracy 
were  developed,  and  they  were  found  to  be  standing  on  the  brink 
of  a  volcano,  prepared  doubtless  for  the  day  of  the  millennium  of 
the  Chicago  revolution !  And  they,  not  yet  taught  by  the  reso 
lute  determination  of  the  American  people  to  deal  with  traitors 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  445 

by  force,  and  supposing  that  men  who  have  met  the  Southern 
people  in  arms  would  be  frightened  by  the  Democrats  in  arms  in 
the  North,  passed  a  resolution  declaring  that  if  the  violation  of 
the  elective  franchise  in  Maryland,  and  Kentucky,  and  Delaware 
was  repeated,  they  would  regard  it  as  cause  of  revolution,  and 
they  adjourned  their  Convention  to  meet  upon  the  call  of  their 
National  Committee  or  President.  Some  persons  thought  that 
was  with  a  view  to  the  possible  refusal  of  the  nomination  by 
M'Clellan.  I  think  any  body  who  so  thought  was  very  short 
sighted  in  public  affairs.  It  meant  to  keep  a  recognized  repre 
sentative  of  the  rebellious  element  of  the  Democratic  party  to 
gether,  so  that  if  they  failed  by  a  small  vote,  and  the  impatience 
of  taxation,  and  the  weariness  of  the  war,  and  the  languor  of  the 
administration  would  allow  them  an  opportunity,  they  could  call 
their  Convention  together,  and  spring  to  arms,  and  make  a  war 
for  the  presidency.  That  was  what  they  meant.  The  interference 
with  elections  in  Maryland !  Why  did  they  slap  their  own  can 
didate  in  the  face  ?  They  would  not  have  done  that  without  a 
cause.  They  knew  what  he  had  done,  but  they  wanted  to  make 
the  preparation  for  a  rebellion.  They  knew  that  the  American 
people  are  tender  upon  the  subject  of  the  elective  franchise.  They 
knew  that  there  was  great  discontent,  just  or  unjust;  great  impa 
tience  ;  great  weariness  of  the  war ;  great  disappointment  at  the 
failure  to  obtain  great  results  after  great  means  had  been  granted. 
They  thought  that  if  they  could  only  show  an  immense  power  in 
the  Northern  States,  carrying  a  majority  of  the  free  States,  and 
they  should  happen  to  be  overbalanced  by  the  vote  of  the  border 
States,  they  could  persuade  the  people  that  the  vote  of  the  border 
States  which  saved  the  Congress  last  time  was  not  a  legal  vote, 
and  precipitate  them  into  rebellion,  and  they  are  waiting  now  that 
chance.  Whether  they  will  have  the  bad  boldness  to  execute 
it  remains  to  be  seen ;  but  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
taken  the  best  security  against  the  opportunity.  A  lesson  has 
been  read  them  in  Indiana  that  they  are  not  likely  shortly  to  for 
get.  (Great  applause.)  It  has  been  re-enforced  in  Ohio  under  the 
odium  of  Yallandigharn.  (Tremendous  applause.)  And  Penn 
sylvania,  though  stripped  of  thousands  of  her  voting  population, 
has  responded  to  the  Western  voice.  (Great  applause.)  What 
New  York  will  do  nobody  knows ;  but  let  New  York  look  to 
her  port  if  she  dare  to  wriggle  even  under  what  the  majority  do. 


446  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

(Applause.)  They  have  tried,  gentlemen,  more  than  once  to  bul 
ly  the  United  States,  and  they  found  it  a  hard  bulldog  to  bully. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  All  through  the  campaign  of  1862  the 
government  was  taunted  with  its  hostility  to  George  B.  M'Clellan. 
They  thought  the  government  did  not  dare  to  remove  him,  or 
they  thought  if  it  did  that  he  would  have  the  pluck,  and  his  sol 
diers  would  have  the  villainy,  to  follow  him  in  a  march  on  Wash 
ington  ;  and  it  was  met  then  as  it  will  be  met  now,  with  a  very 
short  intimation  to  them  that  there  are  other  generals  in  the 
United  States  besides  M'Clellan,  and  other  armies  besides  M'Clel- 
lan's.  (Vehement  and  long-continued  applause.)  They  can  be 
gin,  gentlemen.  Perhaps  they  will  not  end  the  strife  that  they 
begin.  But  the  only  way  to  deal  with  events  of  this  kind  is  not 
to  do  as  Mr. Buchanan  did,  and  encourage  them  to  grow  suddenly 
from  infancy  to  manhood,  and  endow  them  with  gigantic  power 
before  you  strike  them,  but  take  their  first  threat  for  an  act,  and 
smash  them  to  the  brain.  (Great  applause.) 

But,  gentlemen,  the  policy  of  the  President,  it  is  said,  has  di 
vided  the  North  and  united  the  South !  So  say  the  advocates  of 
M'Clellan — so  said  Senator  Johnson.  "Will  any  body  do  me  the 
favor  to  tell  me  when  the  North  was  united?  Was  it  at  the 
presidential  election  of  1860  ?  Was  it  in  the  winter  of  1860-61  ? 
Was  it  when  Sumter  was  fired  on,  and  Pennsylvania  sympathiz 
ers  with  the  South  said, "  Send  troops  to  conquer  the  South,  and 
we  will  begin  the  war  in  the  cars!"  There  are  gentlemen  who 
have  heard  that,  I  know.  It  was  told  me  when  I  was  in  Phila 
delphia  at  the  time  that  Butler's  regiment  was  passing  through 
to  go  to  Annapolis.  "  Go  South  and  we  will  begin  the  war  in 
the  cars,"  was  the  unity  of  the  North  in  1861.  Who  that  was 
ever  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  with  the  administration 
is  now  against  it?  Name  him,  some  one  of  the  thousands  here. 
(Applause.)  There  never  was  a  day  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
Democratic  party  and  its  chief  leaders  were  not  opposed  to  the 
war,  as  Buchanan  was  opposed  to  the  war.  They  had  a  majority 
in  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  and  in  the  Senate  at  that  day,  all 
Democrats,  and  all  opposed  to  war.  Nay,  they  were  afraid  to 
breathe  the  word  "war."  How  is  it  with  the  people  out  of  doors? 
Many  patriotic  men  forgot  their  Democratic  relations  and,  rushed 
to  the  war ;  but  where  are  they  now  ?  What  Democratic  vote 
has  come  up  from  the  army?  They  have  joined  "the  crusade 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  447 

against  the  South."  (Great  applause.)  But  those  that  staid  at 
home,  those  that  carped  at  the  administration,  those  that  sneered 
at  the  obscurity  of  its  members  and  the  incompetency  of  its  head, 
those  who  prated  about  "negro  equality"  and  an  "Abolition  war," 
have  they  now,  for  the  first  time,  divided  the  North  ?  Or  are 
there  more  of  them  now  to-day  than  there  were  in  1861  ?  Or  are 
there  not  now  ten  radicals  for  one  that  existed  then  ? — then  a  mi 
nority,  now  a  majority  of  the  supporters  of  the  administration 
this  day.  (Applause.)  Things  that  men  shrank  from  then,  they 
now  regard  as  the  dictates  of  the  holiest  patriotism  and  the  sub- 
limest  wisdom ;  for  they  have  been  taught  by  the  teacher  Experi 
ence,  and  none  have  gone  back  excepting  those  sows  of  the  De 
mocracy  that  go  back  to  wallow  in  the  mire  from  which  they  nev 
er  were  washed  clean.  (Laughter.)  Divided  the  North !  What 
divided  it?  United  the  South!  When  was  it  not  united?  On 
the  4th  of  August,  1861,  General  M'Clellan  wrote  thus  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States: 

"The  object  of  the  present  war  differs  from  those  in  which  nations  are  engaged 
mainly  in  this:  that  the  purpose  of  ordinary  war  is  to  conquer  a  peace,  and  make  a 
treaty  on  advantageous  terms.  In  this  contest,  it  has  become  necessary  to  crush  a 
population  sufficiently  numerous,  intelligent,  and  warlike  to  constitute  a  nation. 
We  have  not  only  to  defeat  their  armed  and  organized  forces  in  the  field,  but  to  dis 
play  such  an  overwhelming  strength  as  will  convince  all  our  antagonists,  especially 
those  of  the  governing,  aristocratic  class,  of  the  utter  impossibility  of  resistance." 

Now  what  has  occasioned  that  unity? 

"Our  late  reverses  make  this  course  imperative." 

It  was  Bull  Bun  that  united  the  South,  or  rather  consolidated 
what  before  was  united,  welded  into  one  unbroken  mass  the  iron 
which  hitherto  we  have  vainly  striven  to  rend  asunder.  That  is 
the  testimony  of  General  M'Clellan. 

"The  contest  began  with  a  class;  now  it  is  with  a  people — our  military  success 
es  can  alone  restore  the  former  issue." 

I  can  quote  no  higher  authority  upon  this  point — certainly  not 
to  our  antagonists — none  higher  to  myself,  for  it  conforms  entirely 
with  my  own  judgment.  From  the  day  of  Bull  Eun  to  this  day 
there  has  never  welled  up  by  accident  any  where  in  the  broad  re 
gion  of  the  South  one  bubble  of  discontent.  The  South  was  made 
a  unit' by  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter.  It  antedated  Bull  Kun ;  and 
any  body  who  has  ever  conversed  either  with  gentlemen  of  the 
United  States  army,  or  others  resident  in  the  South  who  have 
found  it  necessary  to  fly  from  there,  knows  that  that  collision  in 


448  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

arms  sunk  every  opposition  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  made  North 
Carolina  instantly  a  unit,  as  instantly  as  the  Chicago  Platform 
united  the  dividing  fragments  of  the  Kepublican  party  within  a 
month  or  two  past.  Then  we  did  not  unite  the  South.  They 
united  themselves  to  gain  their  independence,  and  they  are  strug 
gling  now  for  it.  They  will  be  disunited  when  the  band  of  iron 
that  clasps  them  is  torn  asunder.  They  will  be  disunited  when 
Lee's  army  is  beaten  and  dissolved.  And  when  they  are  disunit 
ed  you  will  find  that  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  reorganizing 
loyal  governments  and  bringing  them  back  to  their  normal  rela 
tions  to  the  national  government.  But  we  did  not  unite  them ; 
they  united  themselves.  But  now  what  caused  the  divisions  of 
the  North  ?  We  are  told  that  the  "  negro  policy"  has  divided  the 
North.  Well,  what  part  of  it,  and  when?  In  1861  the  war  be 
gan.  I  have  shown  you  that  then  the  North  was  divided.  Every 
body  who  has  lived  in  the  North  knows  it ;  but  it  became  patent 
to  every  eye  in  the  summer  of  1862.  Then  was  the  canvass  in 
Pennsylvania,  in  Indiana,  in  Ohio,  in  New  York.  I  think  there 
are  gentlemen  present  who  remember  that  there  was  a  division  in 
Pennsylvania  at  that  time,  and  that  some  Congressmen  were 
lost.  I  think  there  are  gentlemen  who  remember  that  Ohio  was 
swept,  and  that  only  five  Kepublican  members  survived  in  the 
lower  house  of  Congress.  Indiana  and  Illinois  were  stripped  of 
their  previous  majorities,  and  overwhelming  majorities  were  cast 
against  the  administration.  Governor  Seymour  was  elected  in 
New  York.  There  was  division  then,  and  divisions  upon  the 
identical  ground  that  it  is  now  alleged  to  have  arisen  upon ;  and 
up  to  that  day  what  had  the  government  done  that  was  not  sanc 
tioned  by  the  express  words,  the  formal  advice  of  George  B. 
M'Clellan,  on  the  Negro  Question  ?  What  one  law  was  passed, 
what  one  executive  act  was  done,  that  he  did  not  in  writing  and 
in  print  formally  advise  and  approve  ? 

I  beg  your  pardon  for  quoting  again  from  a  letter  written  by 
George  B.  M'Clellan  at  a  very  significant  date,  on  the  7th  of  July, 
1862,  at  Harrison's  Landing,  when  one  would  have  supposed  that 
the  care  of  his  army  and  military  operations  would  more  appro 
priately  have  occupied  his  mind  than  penning  political  instructions 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Here  is  his  advice : 

"  Military  arrests  should  not  be  tolerated  except  in  places  where  active  hostilities 
exist." 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  449 

That,  I  suppose,  was  intended  as  a  comment  upon  his  arrest  of 
the  Maryland  Legislature. 

"  Military  power  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  relations  of  servi 
tude,  either  by  supporting  or  impairing  the  authority  of  the  master,  except  for  re 
pressing  disorder,  as  in  other  cases." 

On  the  13th  of  March,  1862,  Congress  had  passed  an  act  forbid 
ding  officers  of  the  army  to  be  concerned  in  returning  fugitive 
slaves  to  their  masters.  George  B.  M'Clellan  did  not  disapprove 
that  law. 

"  Slavery,  contraband  under  the  act  of  Congress,  seeking  military  protection, 
should  receive  it." 

On  the  6th  of  August,  1861,  Congress  declared  that  slaves  al 
lowed  by  their  masters  to  be  used  in  any  manner  to  aid  the  rebel 
lion  should  be  free.  George  B.  M'Clellan  thinks  they  ought  to 
be  free,  and  ought  to  be  received  within  the  military  lines  of  the 
United  States.  So  he  did  not  disapprove  of  that  act  of  Congress. 

"The  right  of  the  government  to  appropriate  permanently  to  its  own  service 
claims  to  slave  labor  should  be  asserted,  and  the  right  of  the  owner  to  compensation 
therefor  should  be  recognized." 

That  was  written  on  the  7th  of  July,  1862,  and  on  the  17th  of 
the  same  month,  as  if  in  obedience  to  that  very  letter,  in  perfect 
conformity  with  its  precise  provisions,  Congress  passed  a  law  au 
thorizing  the  President  to  accept  and  use  as  many  persons  of  Afri 
can  descent  as  he  might  see  fit  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  rebellion. 
(Great  applause.)  If  M'Clellan  disapproved  of  that  law  after  it 
was  passed,  he  advised  it  before  it  was  passed. 

"This  principle  might  be  extended." 

Now,  gentlemen,  you  will  hardly  believe  your  ears  when  I  read 
to  you  the  next  words  : 

"This  principle  might  be  extended  upon  the  grounds  of  military  necessity." 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  * 

Did  you  ever  hear  those  words  impeached  as  savoring  of  des 
potism  ? 

"Upon  grounds  of  military  necessity  and  security ." 

To  whom? 

"To  all  the  slaves  of  a  particular  State." 

The  government  to  confiscate  to  its  own  use  all  the  slaves  of  a 
particular  State,  with  compensation,  on  the  ground  of  military  ne 
cessity  !  (Applause.)  Why,  gentlemen,  he  was  three  months 
ahead  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  (Applause.)  And 

FF 


450  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

what  is  his  comment?     What  is  his  purpose?     To  serve  the 
United  States ! 

"Thus  working  manumission  in  such  State." 

Thus  working  manumission  in  such  State  on  the  ground  of 
military  necessity,  by  the  paramount  authority  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  confiscating  to  its  own  service  only  for  form's 
sake,  in  order  that  manumission  might  be  carried  throughout  the 
whole  State.  And  where  ?  In  the  rebel  States,  where  men  were 
in  arms  against  the  government,  where  there  was  some  excuse  for 
the  authority  of  Congress  to  do  what  he  intimated  ?  No.  "  And 
in  Missouri" — a  loyal  State  of  this  Union.  "  Perhaps  in  Western 
Virginia,"  just  organizing  as  a  new  State.  "And  possibly  even 
in  Maryland ;  the  expediency  of  such  a  measure  can  only  be  a 
question  of  time." 

Now,  gentlemen,  is  it  not  the  arch-fiend's  mock,  a  man  like  that 
to  talk  about  the  President's  having  divided  the  North  on  the  Ne 
gro  Question?  (Great  applause.)  The  President,  in  my  judg 
ment,  overstepping  his  legal  authority — I  do  not  agree  with 
M'Clellan  any  more  than  I  do  with  him  on  that — on  the  22d  of 
September,  1862,  issued  his  monitory  proclamation  of  freedom, 
promising  thereafter  to  make  it  peremptory.  He  never  dreamed 
that  his  power  went  into  a  loyal  State  with  an  existing  State 
government;  he  never  dreamed  that  "military  necessity"  would 
justify  him  in  turning  the  slaves  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky,  and 
Western  Virginia  and  Missouri,  free ;  yet  George  B.  M'Clellan, 
the  "  Conservative"  candidate  for  the  presidency,  the  candidate 
opposed  to  "negro  equality,"  the  candidate  who  represents  that 
party  who  impute  to  the  President  the  division  of  the  North  on 
the  Negro  Question — while  Mr.  Lincoln  was  wrestling  with  the 
Western  parsons  on  the  question  of  emancipation,  screwing  his 
courage  up  to  the  sticking-point,  and- endeavoring  to  find  his  way 
through  the  mists  of  his  conscience  to  do  what  the  people  wanted 
him  to  do,  and  what  he  could  not  see  his  way  to  do,  M'Clellan  is 
already  in  the  seventh  heaven  of  emancipation,  and  tells  him  to 
do  it  by  virtue  of  military  necessity.  (Great  applause.)  We  only 
made  one  mistake,  gentlemen ;  we  did  not  take  George  B.  M'Clel 
lan  for  the  Emancipation  candidate  for  the  presidency.  (Laugh 
ter.)  That  brings  us  up  to  1862,  in  September,  and  October,  and 
November.  Was  there  division  in  the  North  then?  Was  Penn 
sylvania  with  the  administration  ?  or  New  York  with  the  admin- 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  451 

istration?  or  Ohio?  or  Indiana  ?  or  Illinois?  Was  not  the  whole 
body  of  the  great  central  States  of  the  republic  with  the  enemies 
of  the  republic?  Did  you  not  lose  every  State  government  where 
there  was  a  contest  at  that  time?  Then  there  was  division — di 
vision  when  the  President  was  stepping  tenderly  and  slowly  along 
behind  the  longer  strides  of  George  B.  M'Clellan  on  the  Negro 
Question  toward  emancipation.  Who  divided  the  North  ?  Gen 
tlemen,  the  Origin  of  all  Evil  divided  the  North  when  he  put  "De 
mocracy"  in  it,  and  until  he  is  bound  with  that  chain  which  Keve- 
lation  speaks  of,  that  division  will  be  here.  And  you  must  be  j  ust 
as  much  upon  your  guard  against  it  politically  as  you  must  be 
against  the  great  enemy  of  mankind  spiritually,  and  pray  God  to 
preserve  you  from  it,  or  it  will  bind  and  chain  you  yet.  But  some 
thing  has  taken  place  since  1862.  We  are  divided  now ;  but  how? 
In  1862  the  division  was*  on  their  side,  they  being  the  majority. 
To-day,  in  this  day  of  wretched  radicalism  and  awful  taxation, 
this  day  of  blood  and  waste,  there  is  division ;  but  the  majority  is 
on  our  side.  (Great  applause.)  The  "  crazy  men"  have  turned 
out  to  be  the  prophets ;  the  "  radical  maniacs"  have  turned  out  to  be 
wise  statesmen.  Energy  for  the  thousandth  time  has  been  shown 
to  be  stronger  than  hesitating  weakness.  When  a  thing  is  to  be 
done,  the  shortest  way  is  the  best  way  to  do  it,  and  brings  strength 
and  energy  with  it.  (Cheers.)  The  country  to-day  stands  com 
mitted  to  this:  the  end  of  the  war,  the  integrity  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  the  extinction  of  the  cause  of  the  war,  slavery.  (Tre 
mendous  applause.)  Our  strength  has  grown  in  proportion  as  the 
"  black  Abolitionists"  have  got  near  the  President's  ear  (cheers), 
and  the  men  of  the  Blair  school  have  got  far  from  it.  We  want 
no  division  around  that  ear.  (Laughter.)  Why,  gentlemen,  trace 
the  progress  of  events  and  see  if  there  be  not,  as  plain  as  daylight, 
the  tracings  of  the  finger  of  God  working  out  chastisement  for  the 
iniquities  of  ourselves  and  our  fathers;  and  blessings  for  our  pos 
terity.  First,  with  timid  steps,  Congress  passed  a  law  saying  that 
negroes  employed  to  aid  the  rebellion  should  be  free.  Then  they 
enacted  that  officers  of  the  army  should  not  return  fugitives. 
Then  they  abolished  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  on 
M'Clellan's  advice  paid  the  masters  for  their  emancipated  slaves 
largely  more  than  their  average  value. 

Then,  in  the  same  year,  they  passed  a  law  authorizing  the  Pres 
ident  to  employ  negroes  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  rebellion.    Then 


452  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

came  the  premonitory  proclamation  of  freedom.  Then,  on  the  1st 
of  January,  1863,  came  the  proclamation  of  freedom,  which  has 
rested  to  this  day  a  mere  declaration,  and  will  not  be  more  until 
the  President  shall  approve  an  act  of  Congress  making  it  law. 
But  it  was  an  utterance,  though  illegal,  in  the  right  direction. 
Then  came  the  admission  of  West  Virginia,  upon  condition  that 
she  should  abolish  slavery.  (Applause.)  And  that  expunged 
from  the  political  law  of  the  United  States  the  great  principles  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  was  that  Congress  could  impose 
and  should  impose  no  conditions  upon  the  admission  of  a  State. 
It  was  another  step  in  the  progress  toward  the  supremacy  of  the 
national  authority.  And  then  followed  emancipation  in  Missouri, 
first  moved  by  her  radical  men,  and  then,  when  they  were  about 
to  be  successful,  seized  on  by  the  "  Conservatives,"  and  converted 
into  a  temporary  and  remote  emancipation.  Still  it  was  emanci 
pation.  And  then,  under  the  auspices  of  Colonel  (now  General) 
Birney,  and  General  Schenck,  and  Mr.  Stanton,  with  the  sympa 
thy  of  Mr:  Chase,  but  against  the  opposition  of  every  body  else 
connected  with  the  government  in  "Washington — by  the  assump 
tion  on  their  part  of  grave  responsibilities — commenced  the  great 
system  of  negro  enlistments  in  Maryland,  the  recruits  to  be  used 
as  substitutes  for  the  whites,  which  began  the  great  emancipation 
contest  there.  (Applause.)  And  then  came  the  law  of  the  last 
Congress,  which  declared  that  bond  and  free  owed  themselves — 
not  by  reason  of  their  masters,  but  themselves — military  service 
to  the  United  States ;  formally  placing  it  upon  the  statute-book 
that  they  were  entitled  to  volunteer,  and,  as  volunteers,  should  re 
ceive  such  bounties  as  the  United  States  government  was  in  the 
habit  of  giving,  and  that  the  slaves  should  be  subject  to  draft,  put 
upon  the  same  rolls,  and  drawn  from  the  same  box,  according  to 
the  same  proportions  as  the  white  subjects  of  the  republic  (cheers), 
and  now  more  than  100,000  are  in  arms  for  our  defense.  On  the 
12th  and  13th  of  October  the  State  of  Maryland  sealed  emancipa 
tion,  and  made  herself  free  (great  applause)  —  made  herself  free 
without  the  aid  of  those  in  power  in  Washington  —  free  by  her 
own  act,  in  the  face  of  strenuous  opposition  to 'the  particular  forms 
that  it  assumed — cheered  on  by  the  energetic  countenance  of  a 
citizen  of  your  own  State,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and,  beside  him, 
none — aided  at  the  dead  point  of  the  machinery  by  liberal  gentle 
men  here  and  in  Boston — elsewhere  receiving  no  aid — free  by  the 


VICTOKY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  453 

untouched  and  untrammeled  vote  of  her  own  citizens,  although 
Mr.  Attorney  General  Black  had  the  insolence  last  night  to  say  that 
the  great  majority  of  her  people  had  been  placed  by  the  adminis 
tration,  and  by  outrageous  frauds,  under  the  control  of  a  "  corrupt 
and  venal  minority."  Gentlemen,  the  corruptest  of  the  corrupt 
traitors  in  Maryland  would  stand  above  him  in  political  honesty. 
(Applause.)  He,  the  apologist  of  the  Lecompton  villainy,  is  a 
pretty  person  to  criticise  the  free  conduct  of  the  Maryland  people, 
who  have  just  decided  for  freedom  by  a  vote  as  close  as  yours  at 
the  late  election,  and  as  free  as  yours,  with  traitors  perjuring  them 
selves  to  vote,  and  voting  every  where,  without  any  body  to  touch 
them.  The  imputation  came  from  an  appropriate  source.  One 
of  the  ministers  of  the  infamies  of  Buchanan's  administration, 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  Washington  massacre  and  the  fraud 
and  blood  of  Kansas,  taunts  the  people  of  Maryland  with  being 
under  the  influence  of  a  corrupt  and  venal  minority !  Why,  he 
can  teach  corruption  and  venality  to  the  inhabitants  of  our  pen 
itentiary.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But  there  we  are.  It  is 
possible  that  the  gentlemen  of  Chicago  may  rebel ;  I  don't  see 
any  other  remedy  for  it  than  that.  (Laughter.)  It  is  done. 
Now,  at  this  day,  when  we  have  brought  the  whole  mass  and 
body  of  the  Eepublican  party  —  I  use  a  more  comprehensive 
phrase,  all  men  who  are  supporting  the  administration  in  the  con 
duct  of  the  war  and  its  general  policy — when  we  have  brought 
the  whole  body  and  mass  of  them  up  to  that  point,  to  these  rad 
ical  measures,  these  great  regions  won  to  freedom,  these  great 
steps  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  equality  of  the  rights  of  all 
mankind,  these  steps  in  national  wisdom,  these  steps  which  have 
brought  a  vast  population  of  a  different  color  but  great  patriotism 
to  the  support  of  the  government  —  after  these  steps,  I  say,  we 
stand  to-day  more  united,  stronger,  agreeing  better  in  opinion, 
more  resolutely  determined  to  meet  the  public  enemies,  more 
united  about  the  instruments  that  we  shall  use  to  smite  them 
down  than  at  any  other  period — and  the  people  are  with  us !  I 
rather  think  that,  instructed  by  the  lessons  of  this  latter  day,  the 
men  who  slipped  secretly  to  the  President's  ear  and  advised  him 
to  pocket  the  bill  that  was  carried  through  both  branches  of  Con 
gress  by  the  whole  mass  of  his  supporters  to  consolidate  the  legal 
freedom  of  the  slaves  of  the  rebel  States,  and  give  them  judicial 
guarantees— the  men  who  gave  that  secret  advice  and  pushed  the 


454  VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS. 

bill  off  in  the  Senate  until  it  could  be  defeated  without  the  re 
sponsibility  of  a  veto,  will  not  repeat  the  advice  at  the  coming 
session  of  Congress.  (Great  applause.)  The  thunder  of  the  com 
ing  majorities  will  reach  even  their  dead  hearts  and  dull  ears. 
The  fact  that  the  mass  of  the  American  people  are  resolved  that 
no  slave  shall  breathe  American  air  will  become  intelligible  to 
every  mind.  (Tremendous  applause.)  Trembling  and  doubting 
Conservatives,  with  their  gouty  feet,  will  cease  to  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  march  of  the  nation  to  universal  freedom.  (Great  cheer 
ing.)  They  will  be  walked  over,  or  pushed  aside,  or  forgotten,  or 
left  to  mumble  with  toothless  gums  over  the  old  women's  tales  of 
their  boyhood.  Wise  men,  firm  men,  in  the  vigor  of  their  years, 
with  reason  unimpaired,  and  eyes  that  can  see  the  teachings  of 
the  time,  and  who  have  read  deep  in  the  bloody  lesson  of  this  day, 
will  apply  the  lesson  for  the  benefit  of  themselves  and  their  chil 
dren,  and  go  down  honored  and  rejoicing  to  the  grave  that  closes 
over  them,  but  buries  them  in  a  free  land.  (Great  applause.) 
Trust  not  conservatism — the  wretched  respectability  that  covers 
up  every  corruption — that  defends  every  iniquity  —  that  main 
tains  every  wrong — that  sanctifies  it  by  appealing  to  the  past,  and 
subordinates  every  moral  consideration  to  maintaining  what  is, 
because  they  have  grown  up  in  it,  and  grown  fat  by  it,  and  profit 
ed  by  it,  and  been  in  the  habit  of  bowing  down  low  before  it.  It 
is  to  the  young  generation  that  have  stood  in  the  front  of  flaming 
rebellion,  and  extinguished  its  fires,  that  the  republic  looks  to 
hereafter  to  guide  it  in  civil  as  well  as  in  military  affairs.  (Great 
applause.)  And  when,  gentlemen,  the  people  shall  have  elected 
their  President,  they  will  let  him  know  that  whatever  his  procliv 
ities  or  disposition  may  be,  whatever  doubts  may  encumber  or 
hang  around  his  mind  still,  whatever  may  be  his  private  opinions, 
they  must  be  subordinated  to  the  will  of  the  American  people. 
(Great  applause.)  If  he  does  that,  then  he  will  have  a  peaceful, 
quiet,  glorious,  magnificent  administration,  with  the  sun  of  peace 
blazing  over  its  declining  days ;  and  if  he  do  not,  woe  to  him  be 
fore  the  tribunal  of  history  and  in  the  minds  of  his  countrymen. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  said  almost  all  that  I  want  to  say.  ("Go 
ahead,"  "  Go  on.")  All  that  I  wish  to  add  is  this :  We  are  now 
on  trial  for  our  lives  before  the  tribunal  of  history.  Nations  that 
are  born  to  empire  must  be  content  to  go  through  grievous  trials, 
and  we  are  going  through  ours.  Whether  a  people  with  popular 
institutions  can  conduct  great  wars,  bear  great  burdens,  submit  to 


VICTORY  THE  CONDITION  OF  SUCCESS.  455 

great  disasters,  and  still  keep  their  government  intact,  submit  to 
rulers  whom  they  do  not  approve,  and  whose  conduct  is  not  al 
ways  equal  to  the  emergency ;  whether  a  people  can  rise  to  the 
height  of  that  enormous  self-sacrifice,  the  subordination  of  their 
passions,  and  their  impatience,  and  their  interest  to  the  great  par 
amount  interest  of  simply  standing  together  (for  that  is  the  mean 
ing  of  nationality),  simply  doing  what  their  leaders  direct,  sub 
mitting  and  not  rebelling,  whether  their  judgment  accords  with 
what  is  ordered  or  not — whether  this  people  shall  rise  to  that 
height  or  not,  I  was  going  to  say  is  a  question  that  depends  on 
this  canvass.  I  beg  pardon  of  the  American  people ;  it  has  been 
proved  already.  The  nations  of  the  Old  World — phlegmatic  John 
Bull  or  any  of  them — suffering  what  we  have  suffered,  would  have 
torn  their  own  government  to  pieces  in  a  furious  effort  after  some 
short  way  to  relief.  The  people  of  America  have  exhibited  the 
wisdom  of  the  highest  statesmanship,  that  which  would  have  add 
ed  another  flower  to  the  garland  of  such  a  statesman  as  Richelieu 
or  Chatham,  by  their  patient  submission  to  the  grievances  of  the 
time,  and  their  acceptance,  quietly  and  submissively,  of  the  ne 
cessities  of  empire,  the  necessary  losses,  the  necessary  inconven 
iences,  the  necessary  agony  and  bloodshed.  All  that  they  have 
now  to  do  is  resolutely  to  determine  that,  having  gone  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  suffering  which  they  will  be  called  upon 
to  endure  during  the  war,  they  will  only  endure  a  little  longer ; 
they  will  only  not  fail  in  the  very  hour  and  crisis  of  victory,  for 
he  that  holds  out  the  longest  is  sure  of  the  victory.  The  only 
criterion  of  a  great  nationality  is  the  capacity  of  endurance. 
There  are  many  nations  that  have  exhibited  brilliancy  upon  the 
battle-field,  great  soldierly  qualities,  great  capacities  for  industry ; 
but  none  is  born  to  empire,  none  is  born  for  long  life,  none  will 
live  in  history,  none  will  vindicate  the  right  and  the  power  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves,  excepting  those  that  are  endowed 
with  the  old  Roman  instinct  of  never  submitting  while  disaster 
prevails,  never  yielding  till  victorious  peace  has  sanctioned  the 
power  of  the  republic  to  maintain  its  integrit}'-.  (Great  applause.) 
If  we  but  bear  that  great  example  in  mind,  we  shall  more  than 
equal  the  duration  in  time,  the  extent  in  territory,  the  greatness 
in  power,  the  magnificence  in  resources,  and  infinitely  surpass  in 
the  beneficence  of  our  influence  the  first  great  example  of  free  re 
publican  government  that  the  world  ever  saw.  (Enthusiastic  ap 
plause.) 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

THE  joint  resolution,  adopted  unanimously  on  the  4th  of  April  by  the 
House  of  Representatives,  declaring  what  should  be  the  policy  of  the 
government  in  relation  to  the  French  interference  in  Mexico,  had  not 
been  concurred  in  by  the  Senate.  It  was  thought  there  unnecessary 
and  imprudent  to  publish  any  such  declaration  in  the  existing  condition 
of  affairs  during  the  still  pending  rebellion,  and  while  its  passage  might 
complicate  our  relations  with  France.  It  was  supposed  it  might  wear 
the  appearance  of  a  threat,  and  it  was  deemed  safer  to  allow  the  French 
government  to  retreat  from  any  position  incautiously  assumed,  and  only 
because  of  supposed  or  expected  results  of  the  rebellion  here,  when  that 
government  should  find  out  its  own  mistake,  not  less  in  that  respect  than 
in  regard  to  the  practicability  of  building  up  a  Mexican  empire.  Pre 
vious  to  the  rising  of  the  first  session  of  Congress  (July  4,  1864),  the 
House  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  to  which  was  referred  the  com 
munication  of  the  Secretary  of  State  containing  the  correspondence  with 
the  United  States  Minister  at  Paris  in  relation  to  the  House  joint  reso 
lution,  had,  on  the  27th  of  June,  made  a  report  in  relation  thereto.  At 
the  subsequent  session  (December  15),  that  report  and  resolution  append 
ed  (written  by  Mr.  Davis  as  chairman),  of  the  House  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs,  was  presented  to  the  House  as  follows : 

The  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  have  examined  the  corre 
spondence  submitted  by  the  President  relative  to  the  joint  reso 
lution  on  Mexican  affairs  with  the  profound  respect  to  which  it  is 
entitled,  because  of  the  gravity  of  its  subject  and  the  distinguished 
source  from  which  it  emanated. 

They  regret  that  the  President  should  have  so  widely  departed 
from  the  usage  of  constitutional  governments  as  to  make  a  pend 
ing  resolution  of  so  grave  and  delicate  a  character  the  subject  of 
diplomatic  explanations.  They  regret  still  more  that  the  Presi 
dent  should  have  thought  proper  to  inform  a  foreign  government 
of  a  radical  and  serious  conflict  of  opinion  and  jurisdiction  be 
tween  the  depositories  of  the  legislative  and  executive  power  of 
the  United  States. 

No  expression  of  deference  can  make  the  denial  of  the  right  of 
Congress  constitutionally  to  do  what  the  House  did  with  absolute 
unanimity  other  than  derogatory  to  their  dignity. 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  457 

They  learn  with  surprise  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  President, 
the  form  and  term  of  expressing  the  judgment  of  the  United 
States  on  recognizing  a  monarchical  government  imposed  on  a 
neighboring  republic  is  a  "purely  executive  question,  and  the 
decision  of  it  constitutionally  belongs,  not  to  the  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives,  nor  even  to  Congress,  but  to  the  President  of  the  Unit 
ed  States." 

This  assumption  is  equally  novel  and  inadmissible.  No  Pres 
ident  has  ever  claimed  such  an  exclusive  authority.  No  Con 
gress  can  ever  permit  its  expression  to  pass  without  dissent. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Constitution  nowhere  confers  such  author 
ity  on  the  President. 

The  precedents  of  recognition,  sufficiently  numerous  in  this 
revolutionary  era,  do  not  countenance  this  view ;  and  if  there  be 
one  not  inconsistent  with  it,  the  committee  have  not  found  it. 

All  questions  of  recognition  have  heretofore  been  debated  and 
considered  as  grave  questions  of  national  policy,  on  which  the 
will  of  the  people  should  be  expressed  in  Congress  assembled ; 
and  the  President,  as  the  proper  medium  of  foreign  intercourse, 
has  executed  that  will.  If  he  has  ever  anticipated  its  expression, 
we  have  not  found  the  case. 

The  declaration  and  establishment  of  the  independence  of  the 
Spanish  American  colonies  first  brought  the  question  of  recogni 
tion  of  new  governments  or  nations  before  the  government  of  the 
United  States ;  and  the  precedents  then  set  have  been  followed 
ever  since,  even  by  the  present  administration. 

The  correspondence  now  before  us  is  the  first  attempt  to  depart 
from  that  usage,  and  deny  the  nation  a  controlling  deliberative 
voice  in  regulating  its  foreign  policy. 

The  following  are  the  chief  precedents  on  recognition  of  new 
governments,  and  the  policy  of  the  United  States  government  on 
that  topic : 

On  the  9th  of  February,  1821,  Henry  Clay  moved  in  the  House 
of  Eepresentatives  to  amend  the  Appropriation  Bill  by  the  fol 
lowing  clause : 

"For  an  outfit,  and  one  year's  salary,  to  such  minister  as  the  President, by  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  may  send  to  any  government  of  South  America, 
which  has  established  and  is  maintaining  its  independency  on  Spain,  a  sum  not  ex 
ceeding  $18,000."  It  failed. 

On  the  10th  of  February,  he  moved  that  the  House  of  Bepre- 


458  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

sentatives  participates  with,  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the 
deep  interest  which  they  feel  for  the  success  of  the  Spanish  prov 
inces  of  South  America,  which  are  struggling  for  their  liberty  and 
independence,  and  that  it  will  give  its  constitutional  support  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States  whenever  he  may  deem  it  ex 
pedient  to  recognize  the  sovereignty  and  independence  of  any  of 
the  said  provinces. 

A  motion  to  amend  by  the  proviso 

"  that  this  resolution  shall  not  be  construed  to  interfere  with  the  independent  ex 
ercise  of  the  treaty-making  power," 

and  another, 

"  that  the  House  approves  of  the  course  heretofore  pursued  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  with  regard  to  the  said  provinces," 

were  negatived. 

The  resolution  was  adopted,  and  a  committee  appointed  to  lay 
it  before  President  Monroe. 

The  committee,  on  the  17th  of  February,  reported 

"That  the  President  assured  the  committee  that,  in  common  with  the  people  of 
the  United  States  and  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  felt  great  interest  in  the 
success  of  the  provinces  of  South  America,  which  are  struggling  to  establish  their 
freedom  and  independence,  and  that  he  would  take  the  resolution  into  deliberate 
consideration,  with  the  most  perfect  respect  for  the  distinguished  body  from  which 
it  had  emanated." 

So  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  took  the  initiative  toward  rec 
ognizing  the  new  republics.  The  amendment  to  the  Appropri 
ation  Bill  would  have  been  a  legislative  recognition.  The  reso 
lution  was  a  formal  statement  of  the  opinion  of  the  House  to  the 
President,  which  he  did  not  think  beyond  their  constitutional  au 
thority. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  next  Congress,  the  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Nelson,  of  Virginia,  resolved 

"That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to  lay  before  this  House 
such  communications  as  may  be  in  the  possession  of  the  executive,  from  the  agents 
of  the  United  States  with  the  governments  south  of  the  United  States,  which  have 
declared  their  independence,  and  the  communications  from  the  agents  of  such  gov 
ernments  in  the  United  States  with  the  Secretary  of  State,  as  tend  to  show  the  po 
litical  condition  of  those  governments,  and  the  state  of  the  war  between  them  and 
Spain,  as  it  may  be  consistent  with  the  public  interest  to  commmunicate." 

President  Monroe  answered  the  application  on  the  8th  of  March 
in  an  elaborate  message,  of  which  the  following  extracts  sufficient- 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS,  459 

ly  show  that  he  did  not  think  recognition  "  a  purely  executive 
question,  and  that  the  decision  of  it  constitutionally  belongs,  "not 
to  the  House  of  Kepresentatives,  nor  even  to  Congress,  but  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States:" 

"In  transmitting  to  the  House  of  Representatives  the  documents  called  for  by 
the  resolution  of  that  House  of  the  30th  of  January,  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  invite 
the  attention  of  Congress  to  a  very  important  subject,  and  to  communicate  the  sen 
timents  of  the  executive  on  it ;  that  should  Congress  entertain  similar  sentiments, 
there  may  be  such  co-operation  between  the  two  departments  of  the  government  as 
their  respective  rights  and  duties  may  require." 

"  This  contest  has  now  reached  such  a  stage  and  been  attended  with  such  deci 
sive  success  on  the  part  of  the  provinces,  that  it  merits  the  most  profound  consider 
ation,  whether  their  right  to  the  rank  of  independent  nations,  with  all  the  advantage 
incident  to  it  in  their  intercourse  with  the  United  States,  is  not  complete." 

After  narrating  the  events,  he  proceeds : 

"  When  the  result  cf  such  a  contest  is  manifestly  settled,  the  new  governments 
have  a  claim  to  recognition  by  other  powers  which  ought  not  to  be  resisted." 

"When  we  regard,  then,  the  great  length  of  time  which  the  war  has  been  prose 
cuted,  the  complete  success  which  has  attended  it  in  favor  of  the  provinces,  the 
present  condition  of  the  parties,  and  the  utter  inability  of  Spain  to  produce  anv 
change  in  it,  we  are  compelled  to  conclude  that  its  fate  is  settled,  and  that  the  prov 
inces  which  have  declared  their  independence,  and  are  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  ought 
to  be  recognized." 

"In  2^'°posing  tlds  measure,  it  is  not  contemplated  to  change  thereby  in  the 
slightest  manner  our  friendly  relations  with  either  of  the  parties." 

"  The  measure  is  proposed  under  a  thorough  conviction  that  it  is  in  strict  accord 
with  the  law  of  nations,  and  that  the  United  States  owe  it  to  their  position  and 
character  in  the  world,  as  well  as  to  their  essential  interests,  to  adopt  it." 

"Should  Congress  concur  in  the  view  herein  presented,  they  will  doubtless  see  the 
propriety  of  making  the  necessary  appropriations  for  carrying  it  into  effect." 

It  is  quite  apparent  that  President  Monroe  was  far  from  coun 
tenancing  the  opinion  that  the  form  and  time  in  which  the  Unit 
ed  States  would  think  it  necessary  to  express  themselves  on  the 
policy  of  the  recognition  is  a  purely  executive  question,  and  that  he 
did  not  think  the  decision  of  it  constitutionally  belongs,  not  to  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives,  nor  even  to  Congress,  but  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  to  the  exclusion  of  Congress.  Had  he 
so  thought,  he  would  have  refused  the  production  of  the  papers, 
as  President  Washington  did  the  diplomatic  instructions  relative 
to  the  English  treaty. 

He  would  have  announced  his  purpose  to  recognize  the  repub 
lics,  and  left  it  to  Congress  to  provide  for  diplomatic  intercourse 
with  them. 


460  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

Far  from  that,  he  proposes  for  their  consideration  the  policy  of 
recognition ;  and,  if  they  concur  in  that,  asks  them  to  make  the 
necessary  appropriations  to  carry  it  into  effect. 

He  consulted  the  will  of  the  nation  at  the  mouth  of  Congress, 
and  proposed  to  concur  in  its  execution. 

So  Congress  understood  him,  for  the  papers  and  message  were 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  That  committee 
considered,  in  an  elaborate  report,  the  question  of  independence 
of  the  republics,  the  policy  and  principles  involved  in  their  recog 
nition,  and  on  the  19th  of  March,  1822,  they  submitted  it  to  the 
House.  It  concluded  as  follows : 

"Your  committee,  having  thus  considered  the  subject  referred  to  them  in  all  its 
aspects,  are  unanimously  of  opinioji  that  it  is  just  and  expedient  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  the  several  nations  of  Spanish  America  without  any  reference  to  the 
diversity  in  the  form  of  their  governments ;  and  in  accordance  with  this  opinion 
they  respectfully  submit  the  following  resolutions : 

"Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  concur  in  the  opinion  expressed 
by  the  President  in  his  message  of  the  8th  of  March,  1822,  that  the  American  prov 
inces  of  Spain  which  have  declared  their  independence,  and  are  in  the  enjoyment 
of  it,  ought  to  be  recognized  by  the  United  States  as  independent  nations. 

"Resolved^  That  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  be  instructed  to  report  a  bill 
appropriating  a  sum  not  exceeding  $100,000  to  enable  the  President  to  give  due  ef 
fect  to  such  recognition." 

It  is  therefore  equally  apparent  that  the  House  of  Kepresenta- 
tives  of  the  17th  Congress  was  clearly  of  opinion  with  President 
Monroe  that  the  question  of  recognition  was  not  purely  execu 
tive,  but  that  it  constitutionally  belongs  to  Congress  as  well  as  to 
the  President;  that  the  Legislature  declares  the  will  of  the  United 
States,  which  the  executive  gives  effect  to,  each  concurring  in 
the  act  of  recognition  according  to  their  respective  constitutional 
functions. 

In  obedience  to  that  resolution,  the  following  bill,  recognizing 
the  new  nation,  was  reported,  and  passed,  and  approved  on  the 
4th  of  May,  1822: 

"That  for  such  missions  to  the  independent  nations  on  the  American  continent  as 
the  President  may  deem  proper,  there  be,  and  hereby  is,  appropriated  a  sum  not  ex 
ceeding  $100,000,  to  be  paid  out  of  any  money  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appro 
priated." 

The  approval  of  that  law  completed  the  recognition  of  the  new 
nations.  The  sending  ministers  to  some  or  all  of  them  was  mat 
ter  of  executive  discretion,  not  at  all  essential  to  or  connected 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  461 

with  the  fact  of  recognition.  Ministers  were  appointed  to  Mex 
ico,  Colombia,  Buenos  Ayres,  and  Chili,  on  the  27th  of  January, 
1823.  None  was  appointed  to  Peru  till  May,  1826 ;  yet  it  is  cer 
tain  Peru  was  as  much  recognized  by  the  United  States  as  the 
other  governments  from  the  4th  of  May,  1822. 

This  great  precedent  has  governed  all  that  follow  it. 

The  acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  Texas  stands  next 
in  our  history.  It  is  a  most  instructive  precedent,  strictly  follow 
ing  the  forms  respecting  the  governments  of  Spanish  America. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1836,  on  the  motion  of  Henry  Clay,  the 
Senate  adopted  the  resolution 

"  That  the  independence  of  Texas  ought  to  be .  acknowledged  by  the  United 
States  whenever  satisfactory  information  shall  be  received  that  it  has  in  successful 
operation  a  civil  government  capable  of  performing  the  duties  and  fulfilling  the  ob 
ligations  of  an  independent  power. " 

The  House  of  Representatives,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1836,  adopt 
ed  a  resolution  in  the  same  words ;  and  added  a  second : 

"  That  the  House  of  Representatives  perceive  with  satisfaction  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States  has  adopted  measures  to  ascertain  the  political,  military,  and 
civil  condition  of  Texas." — Congressional  Globe,  1st  session  24th  Congress,  p.  453, 
48G. 

Those  resolutions  were  not  formal  acknowledgments  of  a  gov 
ernment  of  Texas ;  the  report  of  the  Senate  committee  showed 
the  circumstances  were  not  sufficiently  known ;  and  both  Senate 
and  House  awaited  farther  information  at  the  hands  of  the  Presi 
dent. 

On  the  2d  of  December,  while  communicating  the  information, 
President  Jackson  accepted  the  occasion  to  express  to  Congress 
his  opinion  on  the  subject.  The  following  passages  are  very  in 
structive,  touching  the  authority  to  recognize  new  States : 

"Nor  has  any  deliberative  inquiry  ever  been  instituted  in  Congress,  or  in  any  of 
our  legislative  bodies,  as  to  whom  belonged  the  power  of  recognizing  a  new  State ; 
a  power,  the  exercise  of  which  is  equivalent,  under  some  circumstances,  to  a  decla 
ration  of  war ;  a  power  nowhere  expressly  delegated,  and  only  granted  in  the  Con 
stitution,  as  it  is  necessarily  involved  in  some  of  the  great  powers  given  to  Congress, 
in  that  given  to  the  President  and  Senate  to  form  treaties  and  to  appoint  embassa- 
dors  and  other  public  ministers,  and  in  that  conferred  on  the  President  to  receive 
ministers  from  foreign  nations." 

"  In  the  preamble  to  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  it  is  distinct 
ly  intimated  that  the  expediency  of  recognizing  the  independence  of  Texas  should 
be  left  to  the  decision  of  Congress.  In  this  view,  on  the  ground  of  expediency,  I  am 


462  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

disposed  to  concur ;  and  do  not,  therefore,  think  it  necessary  to  express  any  opinion 
as  to  the  strict  constitutional  right  of  the  executive,  either  apart  from,  or  in  con- 
junction  with,  the  Senate  over  the  subject.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  on  no  future 
occasion  will  a  dispute  arise,  as  none  has  heretofore  occurred,  between  the  executive  and 
Legislature  in  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  recognition.  It  will  always  be  considered 
consistent  tvith  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  most  safe  that  it  should  be  exercised, 
when  probably  leading  to  war,  with  a  previous  understanding  with  that  body  by 
whom  war  can  alone  be  declared,  and  by  whom  all  the  provisions  for  sustaining  its 
perils  must  be  furnished.  Its  submission  to  Congress,  which  represents  in  one  of 
its  branches  the  States  of  this  Union,  and  in  the  other  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  where  there  may  be  reasonable  ground  to  apprehend  so  grave  a  consequence, 
would  certainly  afford  the  fullest  satisfaction  to  our  own  country,  and  a  perfect  guar 
antee  to  all  other  countries,  of  the  justice  and  prudence  of  the  measures  which 
ought  to  be  adopted." 

After  forcibly  stating  why  he  thought  "  we  should  still  stand 
aloof,"  he  closed  with  the  following  declaration : 

"Having  thus  discharged  my  duty  by  presenting  with  simplicity  and  directness 
the  views  which,  after  much  reflection,  I  have  been  led  to  take  of  this  important 
subject,  I  have  only  to  add  the  expression  of  my  confidence  that  if  Congress  should 
differ  with  me  upon  it,  their  judgment  will  be  the  result  of  dispassionate,  prudent, 
and  wise  deliberation ;  with  the  assurance  that,  during  the  short  time  which  I  shall 
continue  connected  with  the  government,  I  shall  promptly  and  cordially  unite  with 
you  in  such  measures  as  may  be  deemed  best  fitted  to  increase  the  prosperity  and 
perpetuate  the  peace  of  our  favored  country." 

The  concurrent  resolutions  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives,  and  that  message  of  President  Jackson,  leave  no  doubt 
that  the  views  which  presided  over  the  recognition  of  the  South 
American  governments  still  prevailed,  and  that  the  President  was 
as  far  from  asserting  as  Congress  from  admitting  that  the  recog 
nition  of  new  nations  and  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States 
is  a  purely  executive  question. 

The  independence  of  Texas  was  finally  recognized  in  pursu 
ance  of  the  following  enactment  in  the  Appropriation  Bill  of  the 
second  session  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Congress,  which  appropriated 
money 

"For  the  outfit  and  salary  of  a  diplomatic  agent  to  be  sent  to  the  Rcpiiblic  of 
Texas  whenever  the  President  of  the  United  States  may  receive  satisfactory  evi 
dence  that  Texas  is  an  independent  power,  and  shall  deem  it  expedient  to  appoint 
such  minister." — 5  Statutes,  170. 

That  law  was  approved  by  President  Jackson. 
Not  only  is  this  exclusive  assumption  without  countenance  in 
the  early  history  of  the  republic,  but  it  is  irreconcilable  with  the 


JOINT  KESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  463 

most  solemn  acts  of  the  present  administration.  The  independ 
ence  of  Hay  ti  is  nearly  as  old  as  that  of  the  United  States ;  it  an 
tedated  that  of  the  South  American  republics,  and  the  republic 
of  Liberia  has  long  been  recognized  by  European  nations.  Both 
were  first  recognized  by  act  of  Congress,  approved  by  President 
Lincoln  on  the  5th  of  July,  1862,  which  enacted 

"That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authoi-ized,  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  to  appoint  diplomatic  representatives  of 
the  United  States  to  the  republics  of  II ay  ti  and  Liberia  respectively.  Each  of  the 
representatives  so  appointed  shall  be  accredited  as  commissioner  and  consul  gener 
al,  and  shall  receive  the  compensation  of  commissioners,"  etc.,  etc. 

That  was  a  formal  recognition  of  those  republics  by  law, 
whether  the  President  sent  diplomatic  representatives  or  not. 

Quite  in  the  spirit  of  these  precedents  is  the  well-considered 
language  of  the  Supreme  Court : 

"Those  questions  which  respect  the  rights  of  a  part  of  a  foreign  empire  which 
asserts  and  is  contending  for  its  independence  belong  more  properly  to  those  who 
can  declare  what  the  law  shall  be,  who  can  place  the  nation  in  such  a  position  with 
respect  to  foreign  powers  as  to  their  own  judgment  shall  appear  wise,  to  whom  are 
intrusted  its  foreign  relations,  than  to  that  tribunal  whose  power  as  well  as  duty 
is  confined  to  the  application  of  the  rule  which  the  Legislature  may  prescribe  for 
it." 

But  the  joint  resolution  of  the  4th  of  April  does  more  than  de 
clare  the  refusal  of  the  United  States  to  recognize  a  monarchical 
usurpation  in  Mexico.  It  declares  a  general  rule  of  policy,  which 
can  be  authentically  and  authoritatively  expressed  only  by  the 
body  charged  with  the  legislative  power  of  the  United  States. 

li  Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  Congress  assembkdjTh&t  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  are  unwill 
ing,  by  silence,  to  leave  the  nations  of  the  world  under  the  impression  that  they  are 
indifferent  spectators  of  the  deplorable  events  now  transpiring  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico;  and  they  therefore  think  fit  to  declare. that  it  does  not  accord  with  the 
policy  of  the  United  States  to  acknowledge  a  monarchical  government  erected  on 
the  ruins  of  any  republican  government  in  America  under  the  auspices  of  any  Eu 
ropean  power." 

The  committee  are  of  opinion  that  this  authority,  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  United  States,  has  never,  before  the  correspond 
ence  in  question,  been  considered  a  purely  executive  function. 

The  most  remarkable  declaration  of  this  kind  in  our  history, 
which  events  seem  now  likely  to  make  of  as  grave  practical  inter- 


464  JOINT  KESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

est  as  when  it  was  uttered,  is  President  Monroe's  declaration  in 
his  message  of  the  2d  of  December,  1823 : 

"  With  the  governments  which  have  declared  their  independence  and  maintained 
it,  and  whose  independence  we  have,  after  great  consideration  and  on  just  princi 
ples,  acknowledged,  we  could  not  view  any  interposition,  for  the  purpose  of  oppress 
ing  them  or  controlling  in  any  other  manner  their  destiny  by  any  European  power, 
in  any  other  light  than  as  the  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the 
United  States." 

But,  though  always  the  accurate  expression  of  the  feelings  of 
the  American  people,  it  was  not  regarded  as  the  settled  policy  of 
the  nation,  because  not  formally  declared  by  Congress.  By  the 
administration  of  President  John  Quincy  Adams,  which  followed, 
it  was  treated  as  merely  an  executive  expression  on  behalf  of  the 
people,  which  Congress  alone  could  elevate  to  the  dignity  of  a 
national  policy  by  its  formal  adoption. 

In  1826,  Mr.  Poinsett,  the  minister  to  Mexico,  having  used  lan 
guage  supposed  to  commit  the  United  States  to  that  policy  in  be 
half  of  Mexico,  a  resolution  was  promptly  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  and  adopted  on  the  27th  of  March, 
1826, 

"That  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  inquire  and  report  to  this  House  upon 
what  authority,  if  any,  the  minister  of  the  United  States  to  the  Mexican  Republic, 
in  his  official  character,  declared  to  the  plenipotentiary  of  that  government  that  the 
United  States  have  pledged  themselves  not  to  permit  any  other  power  than  Spain  to 
interfere  either  with  their  (the  South  American  republics)  independence  or  form  of 
government,"  etc.,  etc. — 2  Cong.  Deb.,  19th  Con.,  1st  sess.,  p.  1820. 

Mr.  Poinsett  hastened  to  explain  by  his  letter  of  the  6th  of 
May,  1826,  to  Henry  Clay,  then  Secretary  of  State : 

"I  can  not  rest  satisfied  without  stating  explicitly  that,  in  the  observations  I 
made  during  my  conference  with  the  Mexican  plenipotentiaries,  I  alluded  only  to 
the  message  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  Congress  in  1823. 

"That  message,  declared,  in  my  opinion,  by  the  soundest  policy,  has  been  re 
garded  both  in  Europe  and  America  as  a  solemn  declaration  of  the  views  and  inten 
tions  of  the  executive  of  the  United  States,  and  I  have  always  considered  that  decla 
ration  as  a  pledge,  so  far  forth  as  the  language  of  the  President  can  pledge  the  na 
tion,  to  defend  the  new  American  republics  from  the  attacks  of  any  of  the  powers 
of  Europe  other  than  Spain.  That  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  bound  by 
any  declarations  of  the  executive  is  known  and  understood  as  well  in  Mexico,  where  the 
government  is  modeled  on  our  own  political  institutions,  as  in  the  United  States  them 
selves.  But,  in  order  to  correct  any  erroneous  impressions  these  words  might  have 
made  on  the  minds  of  the  Mexican  plenipotentiaries,  I  explained  to  them,  in  the 
course  of  our  conference  this  morning,  their  precise  meaning :  that  the  declaration 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  465 

of  Mr.  Monroe  in  his  message  of  1823,  to  which  I  had  alluded,  indicated  only  the 
course  of  policy  the  executive  of  the  United  States  was  disposed  to  pursue  toward 
these  countries,  but  teas  not  binding  on  the  nation  unless  sanctioned  by  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States ;  and  when  I  spoke  of  the  United  States  having  pledged  themselves 
not  to  permit  any  other  power  than  Spain  to  interfere  with  the  independence  or  form 
of  government  of  the  American  republics,  I  meant  only  to  allude  to  the  above-cited 
declaration  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  his  message  of  1823,  and  to 
nothing  more." 

This  explanation  is  the  more  significant  from  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Clay's  instructions  to  Mr.  Poinsett  directed  him  to  bring  to  the 
notice  of  the  Mexican  government  the  message  of  the  late  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  to  their  Congress  on  the  2d  of  Decem 
ber,  1823,  asserting  certain  important  principles  of  intercontinental 
law  in  the  relations  of  Europe  and  America ;  and,  after  stating 
and  enlarging  on  them,  Mr.  Clay  proceeds : 

"Both  principles  were  laid  down  after  much  and  anxious  deliberation  on  the 
part  of  the  late  administration.  The  President,  who  then  formed  a  part  of  it,  contin 
ues  entirely  to  coincide  in  both,  and  you  will  urge  upon  the  government  of  Mexico  the 
propriety  and  expediency  of  asserting  the  same  principles  on  all  proper  occasions." 

And  in  reply  to  the  resolution  of  inquiry  of  the  27th  of  March, 
Mr.  Clay  accompanied  his  instructions  with  the  declaration — en 
tirely  in  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Poinsett's  letter — 

"  that  the  United  States  have  contracted  no  engagement,  nor  made  any  pledge  to  the 
governments  of  Mexico  and  South  America,  or  either  of  them,  that  the  United  States 
would  not  permit  the  interference  of  any  foreign  power  with  the  independence  or 
form  of  government  of  those  nations.  ******* 
"If,  indeed,  an  attempt  by  force  had  been  made  by  allied  Europe  to  subvert  the 
liberties  of  the  southern  nations  on  this  continent,  and  to  erect  upon  the  ruins  of  their 
free  institutions  monarchical  systems,  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  have 
stood  pledged,  in  the  opinion  of  the  executive,  not  to  any  foreign  State,  but  to  them 
selves  and  their  posterity,  by  their  dearest  interests  and  highest  duties,  to  resist  to 
the  utmost  such  attempt ;  and  it  is  to  a  pledge  of  that  character  that  Mr.  Poinsett 
above  refers." — 2  Cong.  Debates,  19th  Congress,  1st  session,  App.  83,  84. 

Such  were  the  views  of  the  administration  of  President  John 
Quincy  Adams,  whose  Secretary  of  State  was  Henry  Clay,  and 
whose  minister  to  Mexico  was  Mr.  Poinsett,  upon  the  supremacy 
of  the  Legislature  in  declaring  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United 
States,  the  diplomatic  execution  and  conduct  of  which  is  confided 
to  the  President. 

It  is  impossible  to  condense  the  elaborate  message  of  President 
Adams  of  the  15th  of  March,  1826,  dedicated  to  persuading  Con 
gress  to  concur  in  and  sanction  the  Panama  mission ;  but  that 

GG 


466  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

message,  and  the  great  debate  which  consumed  the  session  in  both 
houses,  are  unmeaning  on  the  assumptions  of  this  correspondence 
with  the  French  government ;  and  the  consideration  and  approval 
of  its  recommendations  elevate  President  Monroe's  declaration  to 
the  dignity  and  authority  of  the  policy  of  the  nation  solemnly  and 
legally  proclaimed  by  Congress. 

That  message  was  in  reply  to  a  resolution  requesting  the  Pres 
ident  to  inform  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  "  in  regard  to  what 
objects  the  agents  of  the  United  States  are  expected  to  take  part 
in  the  deliberations  of  that  Congress" — of  Panama. 

Among  other  subjects  of  deliberation,  the  President  enumerated 
the  declaration  of  President  Monroe  above  quoted,  and  on  that 
topic  said : 

"Most  of  the  new  American  republics  have  declared  their  entire  assent  to  them  ; 
and  they  now  propose,  among  the  subjects  of  consideration  at  Panama,  to  take  into 
consideration  the  means  of  making  effectual  the  assertion  of  that  principle,  as  well 
as  the  means  of  resisting  interference  from  abroad  with  the  domestic  concerns  of  the 
American  governments. 

"  In  alluding  to  these  means,  it  would  obviously  be  premature  at  this  time  to  an 
ticipate  that  which  is  offered  merely  as  matter  for  consultation,  or  to  pronounce  upon 
those  measures  which  have  been  or  may  be  suggested.  The  purpose  of  this  govern 
ment  is  to  concur  in  none  which  would  import  hostility  to  Europe,  or  justly  excite 
resentment  in  any  of  her  States.  Should  it  be  deemed  advisable  to  contract  any 
conventional  engagement  on  this  topic,  our  views  would  extend  no  farther  than  to 
a  mutual  pledge  of  the  parties  to  the  compact,  to  maintain  the  principle  in  applica 
tion  to  its  own  territory,  and  to  permit  no  colonial  lodgments  or  establishments  of 
European  jurisdiction  upon  its  own  soil;  and  with  respect  to  the  obtrusive  interfer 
ence  from  abroad,  if  the  future  character  may  be  inferred  from  that  which  has  been, 
and  perhaps  still  is,  exercised  in  more  than  one  of  the  new  States,  a  joint  declara 
tion  of  its  character  and  exposure  of  it  to  the  world  would  be  probably  all  that  the 
occasion  would  require. 

"  Whether  the  United  States  should  or  should  not  be  parties  to  such  a  declara 
tion  may  justly  form  a  part  of  the  deliberation.  That  there  is  an  evil  to  be  reme 
died  needs  little  insight  into  the  secret  history  of  late  years  to  know,  and  that  this 
remedy  may  best  be  considered  at  the  Panama  meeting  deserves  at  least  the  exper 
iment  of  consideration." 

Upon  this  message,  after  elaborate  debates,  Congress  passed  in 
May  an  appropriation  "  for  carrying  into  effect  the  appointment 
of  a  mission  to  the  Congress  of  Panama;"  and  the  President,  by 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  appointed  minis 
ters  to  that  Congress,  and  furnished  them  with  instructions  in  con 
formity  with  the  message,  and  in  execution  of  the  policy  approved 
by  Congress. 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  467 

Accident  and  delays  prevented  the  arrival  of  our  mission  before 
the  dissolution  of  the  Congress ;  but  President  Adams  thought 
the  gravity  of  the  precedent  justified  him  in  communicating  to 
Congress,  in  1829,  Mr.  Clay's  instructions  to  the  ministers  for  our 
information ;  and  the  precedent  remains  forever  to  vindicate  the 
authority  of  Congress  to  declare  and  present  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  United  States. 

The  great  name  of  Daniel  Webster  is  justly  considered  author 
itative  on  any  question  of  constitutional  power ;  and  in  that  de 
bate,  when  the  enemies  of  the  administration  strove  to  insert  par 
ticular  instructions  to  the  diplomatic  agents  sent  to  that  Congress, 
he  clearly  defined  the  limits  of  executive  and  congressional  au 
thority  in  declaring  the  policy  and  conducting  the  negotiations  to 
effectuate  it. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1826,  he  is  reported  to  have  said  in  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives : 

"  He  woitld  ask  two  questions :  First,  Does  not  the  Constitution  vest  the  power 
of  the  executive  in  the  President  ?  Second,  Is  not  the  giving  of  instructions  to 
ministers  abroad  an  exercise  of  executive  power  ?  Why  should  we  take  this  respons 
ibility  on  ourselves?  He  denied  that  the  President  had  devolved,  or  could  devolve, 
his  own  constitutional  responsibility,  or  any  part  of  it,  on  this  House.  The  Presi 
dent  had  sent  this  subject  to  the  House  for  its  concurrence  by  voting  the  necessary 
appropriation.  Beyond  this  the  House  was  not  called  on  to  act.  We  might  refuse 
the  appropriation  if  we  saw  fit,  but  we  had  not  the  power  to  make  our  vote  condi 
tional,  and  to  attach  instructions  to  it. 

"There  was  a  way,  indeed,  in  which  this  House  might  express  its  opinion  in  re 
gard  to  foreign  politics.  That  is  by  resolution,  He  agreed  entirely  with  the  gen 
tleman  that,  if  the  House  were  of  opinion  that  a  wrong  course  was  given  to  our  for 
eign  relations,  it  ought  to  say  so,  and  say  so  by  some  measure  that  should  affect  the 
whole,  and  not  a  part,  of  our  diplomatic  intercourse.  It  ought  to  control  all  mis 
sions,  and  not  one  only. 

"There  was  no  reason  why  the  ministers  to  Panama  should  act  under  these  re 
strictions  that  did  not  equally  apply  to  other  diplomatic  agents — for  example,  to 
our  minister  at  Colombia,  Mexico,  or  other  new  States.  A  resolution  expressive  of 
the  sense  of  the  House  would,  on  the  contrary,  lead  to  instructions  to  be  given  to 
them  all.  A  resolution  was,  therefore,  the  regular  mode  of  proceeding.  We  saw, 
for  instance,  looking  at  these  documents,  that  our  government  had  declared  to  some 
of  the  governments  of  Europe,  perhaps  it  has  declared  to  all  the  principal  powers, 
that  we  could  not  consent  to  the  transfer  of  Cuba  to  any  European  power.  No 
doubt  the  executive  government  can  maintain  that  ground  only  so  long  as  it  re 
ceives  the  approbation  and  support  of  Congress.  If  Congress  be  of  opinion  that 
this  course  of  policy  is  wrong,  then  he  agreed  it  was  in  the  power,  and,  he  thought, 
indeed,  the  duty  of  Congress  to  interfere  and  to  express  dissent.  If  the  amendment 


468  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

now  offered  prevailed,  the  declarations  so  distinctly  made  on  this  point  could  not  be 
reported,  under  any  circumstances,  at  Panama ;  but  they  might,  nevertheless,  be 
reported  any  where  and  every  where  else.  Therefore,  if  we  dissent  from  this  opin 
ion,  that  dissent  should  be  declared  by  resolution,  and  that  would  change  the  whole 
course  of  our  diplomatic  correspondence  on  that  subject  in  all  places.  If  any  gen 
tleman  thinks,  therefore,  that  we  ought  to  take  no  measure,  under  any  circum 
stances,  to  prevent  the  transfer  of  Cuba  into  the  hands  of  any  government,  European 
or  American,  let  him  bring  forward  his  resolution  to  that  effect.  If  it  should  pass, 
it  will  effectually  prevent  the  repetition  of  such  declarations  as  have  been  made." — 
2  Cong.  Debates,  19th  Congress,  1st  session,  p.  2021,  2022. 

This  view  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  at  once  the  j  ust 
view  and  the  traditional  practice  of  the  government ;  the  will  of 
the  people  expressed  in  legislative  form  by  the  legislative  power 
can  declare  authoritatively  the  foreign  policy  of  the  nation ;  to  the 
President  is  committed  the  diplomatic  measures  for  effecting  it. 

.The  constitutional  authority  of  Congress  over  the  foreign  rela 
tions  of  the  United  States  can  hardly  be  considered  an  open  ques 
tion,  after  the  concurrent  resolutions  of  Mr.  Senator  Sumner,  adopt 
ed  in  the  last  Congress,  it  is  believed,  at  the  suggestion,  certainly 
with  the  approval  of  the  President,  and  by  him  officially  notified 
to  foreign  governments,  as  the  most  authentic  and  authoritative 
expression  of  the  national  will  respecting  intervention,  mediation, 
and  every  other  form  of  foreign  intrusion  into  the  domestic  strug 
gle  in  the  United  States. 

The  committee  are  not  inclined  to  discuss  theoretical  questions 
of  relative  power.  The  Constitution  is  a  practical,  and  not  a  the 
oretical  instrument.  It  has  been  administered  and  construed  by 
men  of  practical  sagacity,  and  in  their  hands  the  voice  of  the  peo 
ple  has  been  heard  authoritatively  in  the  executive  chamber  on 
the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs. 

But  this  correspondence  requires  us  to  say  that,  in  view  of  the 
historic  precedents,  it  is  not  a  purely  executive  question  whether 
the  United  States  would  think  it  necessary  to  express  themselves 
in  the  form  adopted  by  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  at  this  time ; 
it  does  belong  to  Congress  to  declare  and  decide  on  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  to 
give  effect  to  that  policy  by  means  of  the  diplomatic  negotiations, 
or  military  power  if  it  be  authorized. 

The  President  is  not  less  bound  to  execute  the  national  will  ex 
pressed  by  law  in  its  foreign  than  in  its  domestic  concerns. 

The  President  appoints  all  officers  of  the  United  States,  but 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS*  439 

their  duties  are  regulated,  not  by  his  will,  but  by  law.  He  is  the 
commander  of  the  army  and  navy,  but  he  has  no  power  to  use  it 
except  when  the  law  points  out  the  occasion  and  the  object.  He 
appoints  foreign  ministers,  but  neither  in  this  case  are  they,  by 
reason  of  their  appointment,  any  thing  but  the  ministers  of  the 
law.  If  it  be  true  that  the  appointment  of  an  embassador  to  a 
nation  implies  the  recognition  of  the  nation,  it  is  just  as  sound 
logic  to  argue  that  none  can  be  appointed  to  a  nation  that  does 
not  exist  by  the  recognition  of  Congress,  as  that  the  President 
can  recognize  alone,  because  he  can  appoint. 

But  we  prefer  to  waive  the  question.  We  are  anxious  not  to 
depart  from  the  approved  precedents  of  our  history.  Our  desire 
is  to  preserve,  not  to  change.  We  will  not  inquire  what  would 
be  the  effect  of  a  recognition  of  a  new  nation  by  the  President 
against  the  will  of  Congress.  We  prefer  to  indulge  the  hope,  so 
wisely  expressed  by  President  Jackson,  that 

"it  is  to  be  presumed  that  on  no  future  occasion  will  a  dispute  arise,  as  none  has 
heretofore  occurred,  between  the  executive  and  Legislature  in  the  exercise  of  the 
power  of  recognition.'' 

Hitherto  new  nations,  new  powers,  have  always  been  recognized 
upon  consultation  and  concurrence  of  the  executive  and  legisla 
tive  departments,  and  on  the  most  important  occasions  by  and  in 
pursuance  of  law  in  the  particular  cases. 

Changes  of  the  person  or  dynasty  of  rulers  of  recognized  pow 
ers,  which  created  no  new  power,  have  not  been'  treated  always 
with  the  same  formality ;  but  usually  the  general  law  providing 
for  diplomatic  intercourse  with  the  power  whose  internal  admin 
istration  had  changed  remained  on  the  statute-book  and  conferred 
a  plenary  discretion  on  the  President,  under  the  sanction  of  which 
he  has  accredited  ministers  to  the  new  possessors  of  power.  It  is 
not  known  that  hitherto  the  President  has  ever  undertaken  to 
recognize  a  new  nation  or  a  new  power  not  before  known  to  the 
history  of  the  world,  and  not  before  acknowledged  by  the  United 
States,  without  the  previous  authority  of  Congress. 

It  is  peculiarly  unfortunate  that  the  new  view  of  the  executive 
authority  should  have  been  announced  to  a  foreign  government, 
the  tendency  of  which  was  to  diminish  the  force  and  effect  of  the 
legislative  expression  of  what  is  admitted  to  be  the  unanimous 
sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  by  denying  the  au 
thority  of  Congress  to  pronounce  it. 


470  JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS. 

Of  the  prudence  of  that  expression  at  this  time  Congress  is  the 
best  and  only  judge  under  the  forms  of  the  Constitution,  and  the 
President  has  no  right  to  influence  it  otherwise  than  in  the  con- 
stitutional  expression  of  his  assent  or  his  dissent  when  presented 
to  him.  for  his  consideration. 

It  is  vain  to  suppose  that  such  a  declaration  increases  the  dan 
ger  of  war  with  France.  The  Emperor  of  the  French  will  make 
war  on  the  United  States  when  it  suits  his  convenience,  and  it  can 
be  done  without  danger  to  his  dynastic  interests.  Till  then,  in 
the  absence  of  wrong  or  insult  on  our  part,  there  will  be  no  war. 
When  that  time  arrives  we  shall  have  war,  no  matter  how  meek, 
inoffensive,  or  pusillanimous  our  conduct  may  be,  for  our  sin  is 
our  freedom  and  our  power,  and  the  only  safety  of  monarchical, 
imperial,  aristocratic,  or  despotic  rule  lies  in  our  failure  or  our 
overthrow. 

It  postpones  the  inevitable  day  to  be  ready  and  powerful  at 
home,  and  to  express  our  resolution  not  to  recognize  acts  of  vio 
lence  to  republican  neighbors  on  our  borders  perpetrated  to  our 
injury.  That  declaration  will  encourage  the  republicans  of  Amer 
ica  to  resist  and  endure,  and  not  to  submit.  •  It  is  not  perceived 
how  an  attack  on  the  United  States  can  promote  the  establish 
ment  of  a  monarch  in  Mexico.  It  might  seriously  injure  us,  but 
it  would  be  an  additional  obstacle  to  the  accomplishment  of  that 
enterprise.  It  is  fortunate  that  events  in  Europe  in  great  measure 
embarrass  any  farther  warlike  enterprise  on  this  continent,  and 
the  ruler  who  has  not  thought  fit  to  mingle  in  the  strife  of  Poland 
or  Schleswig-Holstein  will  hardly  venture  to  provoke  a  war  with 
the  United  States. 

The  committee  are  content  to  bide  their  time,  confident  in  the 
fortune  and  fortitude  of  the  American  people,  but  resolved  not  to 
encourage  by  a  weak  silence  complications  with  foreign  powers 
inimical  to  our  greatness  and  safety,  which,  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
Webster,  "  a  firm  and  timely  assertion  of  what  we  hold  to  be  our 
own  rights  and  our  own  interests  would  strongly  tend  to  avert." 

The  committee  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  reso 
lution  : 

"  Resolved,  That  Congress  has  a  constitutional  right  to  an  authoritative  voice  in 
declaring  and  prescribing  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States,  as  well  in  the  rec 
ognition  of  new  powers  as  in  other  matters  ;  and  it  is  the  constitutional  duty  of  the 
President  to  respect  that  policy,  not  less  in  diplomatic  negotiations  than  in  the  use 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  ON  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS.  471 

of  the  national  force  when  authorized  by  law ;  and  the  propriety  of  any  declaration 
of  foreign  policy  by  Congress  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  vote  which  pronounces  it  ; 
and  such  proposition,  while  pending  and  undetermined,  is  not  a  fit  topic  of  diplo 
matic  explanation  with  any  foreign  power. " 

Mr.  Davis  demanded  the  previous  question  upon  the  passage  of  the 
foregoing  resolution,  which  was  seconded,  and  the  main  question  ordered. 
The  adoption  of  the  resolution  by  the  House  would  of  course  have  been 
equivalent  to  a  public  censure  of  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  under  the  direction  of  the  President.  It  would  have 
implied  that  the  management  of  those  affairs  in  relation  to  the  French 
interference  in  Mexico,  and  the  course  adopted  by  the  Secretary  of  State, 
were,  in  the  opinion  of  the  House,  improper,  and  too  obsequious  toward 
the  Emperor  of  the  French.  To  avoid  a  rejection  of  the  resolution  re 
ported  by  the  committee,  and  the  expression  of  any  such  censure  which 
the  House  was  not  prepared  to  make,  a  motion  to  lay  the  resolution  on 
the  table  was  adopted. 

Mr.  Davis  thought  that  in  this  difference  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the 
majority  of  the  House  was  involved  the  propriety  of  his  continuing  as 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and,  immediately  upon 
the  adoption  of  the  motion  laying  the  resolution  on  the  table,  he  asked 
the  House  to  excuse  his  farther  service  on  that  committee  in  the  follow 
ing  speech : 


FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES 
IN  REGARD  TO  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS  (1864).* 

MR.  SPEAKER, — I  rise  to  a  privileged  question.  I  desire  to  be 
relieved  by  the  House  from  farther  service  on  the  Committee  for 
Foreign  Affairs.  I  am  willing,  sir,  to  take  all  of  the  responsi 
bilities  that  are  connected  with  any  service  upon  which  the  House 
of  Eepresentatives  shall  place  me ;  but  when,  in  the  course  of  the 
discharge  of  those  duties,  I  find  myself  unfortunately  differing  in 
opinion  from  the  majority  of  the  House,  I  do  not  consider  it  is 
proper  I  should  longer  continue  to  hold  any  such  position.  The 
vote  which  has  been  just  passed  by  the  House  is  one  which  will 
allow  of  no  other  construction. 

The  House,  on  my  motion,  on  the  unanimous  recommendation 
of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  at  the  last  session,  passed  a 
resolution  declaring  the  policy  of  this  government  touching  the 
republics  of  America.  It  was  adopted  unanimously.  It  went  to 
the  Senate,  and  there  it  lies.  It  had  not  been  passed  three  days 
before  the  officer  charged  with  the  foreign  correspondence  of  this 
government  directed  our  representatives  abroad  virtually  to  apol 
ogize  to  the  French  government  for  the  resolution  adopted  by  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  and  in  that  correspondence  pre 
sumed  to  impeach  Congress  of  usurpation  in  undertaking  to  pre 
scribe  to  the  President  the  rules  which  should  guide  him  in  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  United  States. 

That  correspondence  was  made  the  subject  of  a  circular  by  the 
French  government,  and  to  all  of  the  governments  of  the  world, 
to  let  them  understand  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
had  no  right  to  speak  with  authority  in  the  foreign  affairs  of  the 
government,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  regarded  except  the  will 
and  declarations  of  the  executive.  In  the  debates  that  took  place 
in  the  French  Assembly,  the  world  was  given  to  understand,  by 
the  member  representing  the  emperor,  that  the  passage  of  the 
resolution  touching  Mexican  affairs  and  the  French  intrusion  into 
Mexico  was  a  momentary  outburst  of  passion  on  the  part  of  the 

*  See  note  on  preceding  page. 


FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  ETC.  473 

representatives  of  the  American  people,  like  that  which  occur 
red  when  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell  were  arrested  on  board  the 
Trent,  but  which  did  not  prevent  the  federal  government  from 
giving  up  the  two  prisoners.  The  world  was  given  to  under 
stand,  on  the  authority  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  by  the  imperial 
government,  that  Congress  is  such  a  thing  as  the  French  Assem 
bly — the  docile  reflex  of  the  executive  will — its  resolution  a  vain 
and  presumptuous  usurpation.  The  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
was  in  a  tone  that  was  not  respectful  to  the  dignity  and  the  au 
thority  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives.  And  if  that  letter  lays 
down  the  law  of  the  land — and  this  House  by  its  vote  to-day  says 
it  does — then  you  have  no  right  to  a  committee  on  foreign  af 
fairs,  and  I  am  no  child  to  play  at  doing  that  which  you  have 
no  right  to  do. 

The  Secretary  of  State,  before  all  Europe,  in  a  matter  of  the 
greatest  moment,  slapped  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  in  the 
face,  in  his  correspondence  with  the  French  government,  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  says  it  will  not  even  assert  its  dignity. 
The  House  of  Representatives  is  the  appropriate  and  adequate 
guardian  of  its  own  dignity. 

Sir,  I  am  the  only  guardian  of  my  own  dignity,  and,  after  this 
vote  and  that  correspondence,  I,  most  humbly  but  respectfully, 
ask  to  be  excused  from  farther  service  upon  the  Committee  on 
Foreign*  Affairs. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  regret  that,  in  the  discussion  that  has  taken 
place,  several  topics  have  been  introduced  that  were  not  very  in 
timately  connected  with  the  simple  and  earnest  application  made 
to  the  House  to  relieve  me  from  farther  service  on  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Affairs. 

It  was  made  in  all  earnestness  and  simplicity,  from  a  profound 
sense  of  duty,  and  not  from  any  personal  feeling  of  discontent 
with  the  vote  of  the  House. 

I  was  not  in  the  least  degree  ruffled  in  my  temper  by  the  cir 
cumstance  that  the  House  has  now,  as  it  has  done  on  so  many  oc 
casions,  differed  from  me  in  judgment. 

I  have  been  brought  up  in  defeats,  I  have  lived  in  minorities ; 
I  always  submit,  and,  I  trust,  with  perfect  humility,  to  the  better 
judgment  of  the  House.  If  any  gentleman,  in  the  course  of  my 
eight  years'  service  in  this  House,  has  ever  seen  any  manifestation 
of  personal  spleen  or  personal  disappointment,  then  may  the  ob- 


474  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

servations  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  be 
justified.  If  no  man  has  on  any  occasion  seen  that,  then  I  shall 
be  pardoned  for  taking  no  farther  notice  of  the  mean  malice  that 
prompted  them. 

But  I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  upon  another  point.  It 
has  been  repeatedly  stated  that  this  resolution  assails  the  Presi 
dent.  Well,  sir,  I  am  ready  to  assail  the  President,  or  any  body 
else,  who  stands  across  the  broad  track  of  republican  principles. 
I  need  not  say  that  in  this  House,  and  yet,  sir,  there  is  no  word 
in  that  resolution  which  assails  the  President,  nor  was  it  contem 
plated  to  assail  him.  It  was  carefully,  deliberately,  critically  pre 
pared,  and  received  the  approval  of  every  member  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  with  the  dissenting  voice  alone  of  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Pomeroy]. 

I  beg  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  language  of  the  resolu 
tion.  The  rights  that  it  asserts  I  do  not  now  pretend  to  debate. 
The  judgment  of  the  House  has  been  rendered,  to  which  I  shall 
bow,  and  bow  without  argument.  The  resolution  was  not  a  cob 
web  of  my  brain,  brought  there  to  hang  fine  dissertations  upon 
about  the  abstract  rights  of  different  departments  of  the  govern 
ment.  This  House  has  asserted  its  authority  in  matters  of  the 
gravest  national  importance — events  which  had  arrested  the  at 
tention  of  the  civilized  world,  and  made  anxious  the  heart -of  ev 
ery  friend  of  liberty  in  it.  A  free  nation  on  our  borders  lay 
bleeding  in  the  talons  of  the  French  eagle,  and  a  vagrant  adven 
turer,  who  had  never  seen  the  soil  of  Mexico,  called  himself  her 
emperor.  The  American  House  of  Eepresentatives  had  declared 
that  it  did  not  accord  with  our  policy  to  recognize  any  monarch 
ical  government  erected  on  the  ruins  of  any  republican  govern 
ment  in  America,  least  of  all  in  Mexico,  our  neighbor  and  our 
friend.  It  did  not  relate  to  remote  or  possible  contingencies,  but 
to  a  bloody,  awful  reality — the  rufe  of  a  free  nation  by  European 
violence,  under  false  pretexts,  and  with  an  insolent  hostility  to 
our  power;  a  ruin  now  more  nearly  consummated,  and  by  our 
fault— ay,  and  still  more  by  the  fault  of  those  charged  with  the 
conduct  of  our  diplomatic  intercourse.  But  that  resolution  had 
rested  in  the  Senate.  We  had  done  all  that  we  could,  and  we 
were  obliged  to  rest  in  silence. 

But  when  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  sent 
abroad  a  dispatch  to  a  foreign  government  relative  to  a  matter 


IN  REGARD  TO  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS  (1864).  475 

then  pending  within  the  legislative  department  of  the  United 
States,  where  the  executive  eye  has  no  right  to  penetrate,  respect 
ing  the  vote  on  which,  until  communicated  to  him  in  the  regular 
form,  he  has  no  right  to  know  any  thing— when  at  that  stage  the 
Secretary  of  State  saw  fit  to  enter  into  diplomatic  communication 
with  a  foreign  government,  in  order  to  rob  the  vote  of  this  House 
of  its  legitimate  and  moral  power  before  it  had  acquired  any  leg 
islative  authority,  and,  in  doing  that,  not  only  questioned  the  wis 
dom  and  expediency  but  the  right  of  this  House,  and  of  both 
houses,  to  say  one  word  upon  the  subject,  I  could  not  sit  in  si 
lence  ;  and  the  House  will  find,  I  think,  that  they  will  be  unable 
to  do  so,  if  they  have  a  due  regard  to  their  dignity  as  one  of  the 
branches  of  the  government. 

And  it  was  in  deference  to  that  practical,  actual  case,  that  the 
resolution  was  drawn — drawn  carefully,  drawn  critically,  drawn 
with  a  studious  avoidance  of  every  innuendo  against  the  personal 
character  either  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  or  of  the 
distinguished  gentleman  who  presides  so  ably  over  the  Depart 
ment  of  State ;  and  the  language  of  his  letter,  to  which  the  lan 
guage  of  the  resolution  refers,  will  show  how  carefully  it  was 
adapted  to  this  object,  and  how  completely  it  accomplished  it. 
The  Secretary  of  State  says :  • 

"It  is,  however,  another  and  a  distinct  question  whether  the  United  States  would 
think  it  necessary  or  proper  to  express  themselves  in  the  form  adopted  by  the  House 
of  Representatives  at  this  time." 

If  it  be  another  question  whether  the  United  States  would 
think  proper  to  express  themselves  at  this  time,  and  in  the  form 
that  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  have  seen  fit  to  use,  who  speaks 
for  the  United  States? 

The  Secretary  says : 

"  This  is  a  practical  and  purely  executive  question." 

Here  the  executive  speaks  for  the  United  States  : 

"And  the  decision  of  it  constitutionally  belongs  not  to  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  nor  even  to  Congress,  but  to  the  President  of  the  United  States." 

Then  the  President  is  the  United  States !  Do  gentlemen  now 
understand  how  the  word  "  President"  came  there  ?  It  was  be 
cause  the  Secretary  of  State  had  told  the  French  government, 
with  a  view  to  break  the  force  of  the  vote  of  the  House  of  Eepre 
sentatives,  that  it  belonged  not  to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives 
nor  to  Congress,  but  exclusively  to  the  President  of  the  United 


476  FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Slates  to  declare  what  the  United  States  thought,  and  when  it  was 
expedient  to  declare  what  it  thought  in  reference  to  our  foreign 
affairs ;  and  foreign  affairs  mean  war,  and  peace,  and  alliances, 
and  recognitions,  and  neutrality,  and  every  interest  and  every 
right  by  which  we  touch  the  nations  of  the  world ;  and  that  in 
the  face  of  the  formal  words  of  the  Constitution  ascribing  those 
functions,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  one  or  both  houses  of  Congress. 

It  was  that  declaration,  in  conflict  with  all  the  precedents  of  the 
United  States,  that  the  Secretary  of  State  saw  fit  merely  to  ex 
press  here  in  the  ordinary  intercourse  between  the  departments 
of  the  government,  but  to  send  abroad  to  our  minister  in  France 
and  lay  before  a  foreign  government,  and  to  impeach  and  dis 
credit  the  judgment  of  Congress  before  it  has  pronounced,  which 
imperatively  required  to  be  rebuked. 

And  it  was  at  that  language  that  the  resolution  was  pointed. 
Now  judge  ye  whether  it  be  true  or  not  that  Congress  has  a  con 
stitutional  right  to  an  authoritative  voice  in  our  foreign  affairs. 
That  raises  the  issue  directly,  does  it  not,  with  the  language,  not 
with  the  person  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  whether  "  Congress  has 
a  constitutional  right  to  an  authoritative  voice  in  declaring  and 
prescribing  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States,  as  well  in  the 
recognition  of  new  powers  as  in  others  matters ;  and  it  is  the  con 
stitutional  duty  of  the  President  to  respect  that  policy,  not  ]ess  in 
matters  of  negotiation  than  in  the  use  of  the  national  force  when 
authorized?" 

It  was  no  blow  aimed  at  the  President.  But  a  right  had  been 
asserted  for  the  President  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  He  first  im 
peached  the  right  of  Congress  to  do  what  it  has  always  done,  and 
usurped  its  right  for  one  of  the  flowers  of  the  presidential  prerog 
ative.  I  deny  his  law  and  his  fact.  I  make  the  question  of  right 
and  not  of  person,  either  with  the  Secretary  or  with  the  Presi 
dent. 

"And  then  whether  the  United  States  would  think  it  necessary  or  proper  to 
express  themselves  in  the  form  adopted  by  the  House  of  Representatives" — 

the  Secretary  tells  the  world  is  an  executive  question !  We  can 
not  allow  our  votes  to  be  received  other  than  in  a  constitutional 
form  of  a  veto  by  the  President ;  then  he  has  the  right  to  approve, 
or  refuse  to  approve,  them  in  the  forms  of  his  constitutional  au 
thority. 

But  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  President  to 


IN  EEGARD  TO  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS  (1864).  477 

say  what  is  necessary  or  proper,  or  what  is  wise  and  what  is  un 
wise,  with  reference  to  any  vote  of  this  House,  or  of  both  houses 
of  Congress,  except  when  our  votes  are  communicated  for  his  ap 
proval  ;  therefore,  to  make  the  issue  direct  with  the  other  portion 
of  the  Secretary's  letter,  this  clause  is  introduced : 

"  And  the  propriety  of  any  declaration  of  foreign  policy  by  Congress  is  sufficient 
ly  proved  by  the  vote  which  pronounces  it." 

That  is  the  assertion  that  our  vote  is  not  the  subject  of  execu 
tive  criticism ;  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  say  what  they  will  upon  the  foreign  policy,  and  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  President  to  veto  or  obey  it.  But,  sir,  if  Congress 
have  sunk  so  low  that  it  must  look  beyond  the  limits  of  its  own 
halls  to  vindicate  the  necessity  and  propriety  of  this  solemn  dec 
laration  of  national  policy  at  this  time  in  the  form  we  adopted, 
perhaps  we  can  find  no  arbiter  between  us  and  the  executive  gov 
ernment  which  it  will  recognize  so  readily  as  the  Baltimore  Con 
vention  ;  and  that  body,  forced  by  public  opinion,  thought  it  nec 
essary  and  proper  to  echo  the  resolution  for  which  the  Secretary 
apologized — only,  attempting  to  give  a  rebuke  the  form  of  a  com 
pliment,  they  converted  it  into  a  sarcasm. 

That  is  the  substance  of  the  resolution.  Now,  sir,  I  say  again 
that  I  do  not  mean  to  debate  the  policy  of  the  resolution,  or  any 
matter  connected  with  it.  Nobody  except  the  gentleman  from 
Maine  [Mr.  Elaine]  has  impeached  it  here  upon  historical  grounds. 
With  great  respect  to  that  gentleman,  I  say  that  the  precedent 
which  he  quotes  is  frivolously  irrelevant ;  and  that,  from  the  be 
ginning  of  the  government  until  this  day,  there  is  no  vote  of  ei 
ther  house  of  Congress,  there  is  no  claim  by  any  President  of  the 
United  States,  there  is  no  expression  by  any  respectable  public 
man  of  any  party,  that  it  does  not  belong  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  to  declare  and  prescribe  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
United  States ;  and  from  the  time  of  the  Panama  mission,  when 
John  Quincy  Adams  asked  and  obtained  the  authority  and  sup 
port  of  Congress  for  that  great  mission  which  we  must  soon  re 
peat,  until  this  day  we  have  vote  on  vote  of  Congress,  under  al 
most  every  administration,  affirming,  implying,  asserting,  or  exert 
ing  that  prerogative,  without  question  from  any  quarter;  and  un 
der  this  administration  more  than  one  act,  approved  by  President 
Lincoln  himself,  to  add  to  the  unbroken  law  of  precedents. 

The  recognition  of  Hayti  and  Liberia  was  not  the  spontaneous 


478  FOREIGN  POLICY  OE  THE  UNITED  STATES 

act  of  the  President ;  but  he,  like  his  predecessors,  waited  till  Con 
gress  had  authorized  him  to  open  with  them  international  rela 
tions. 

Sir,  there  is  but  one  judgment  and  one  course  of  precedent 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  American  history.  Monroe 
concurred  in  it.  The  messages  of  John  Quincy  Adams  are  re 
plete  with  it.  General  Jackson,  in  the  case  of  Texas,  recognized 
it.  Mr.  Clay  asserted  it,  Mr.  Webster  asserted  it.  What  other 
authorities  are  worthy  of  notice  after  we  have  named  these? 
That,  sir,  is  all  I  have  to  say  on  the  subject. 

Now,  sir,  one  other  word.  I  have  said  that,  in  asking  to  be  ex 
cused  from  farther  service  on  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
I  act  from  no  feeling  of  personal  pique.  I  make  that  request 
from  a  sense  of  public  duty,  in  view  of  the  relations  that  the  chair 
man  of  the  committee  necessarily  bears  to  the  House  of  Eepre- 
sentatives.  It  is  possible,  sir,  for  the  House  to  differ  on  many  oc 
casions,  not  only  with  the  chairman,  but  with  the  committee. 
They  are  bound  to  take  the  instructions  of  the  House ;  they  are 
bound  to  conform  to  such  instructions ;  they  are  bound  by  the 
judgment  of  the  House,  and  they  must  act  in  conformity  with  it. 

But  the  position  of  chairman  of  a  committee  means  that  he 
stands  there  as  the  representative  of  the  political  views  of  the  ma 
jority  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives.  He  is  to  the  House  what 
a  member  of  the  cabinet  is  to  the  President.  An  absolute  con 
formity  on  all  essential  principles  between  the  chairman  of  a  com 
mittee  and  the  House  on  a  subject  respecting  which  the  commit 
tee  is  raised,  is  essential  to  a  due  discharge  of  his  duties,  just  as  a 
similar  relation  between  a  cabinet  officer  and  the  President  is  es 
sential  to  the  due  conduct  of  executive  affairs.  /  am  not  the  rep 
resentative  of  the  House  upon  this  question.  The  vote  of  this  morn 
ing  places  a  great  gulf  between  me  and  the  House  of  Eepresenta 
tives.  I  cheerfully  admit  that  I  may  be  wrong  and  they  may 
be  right,  but  the  criterion  of  my  conduct  must  be  my  own  judg 
ment,  and  I  can  not  separate  myself  from  the  history  of  America 
to  conform  to  the  vote  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives. 

And,  sir,  I  go  a  step  farther ;  not  only  is  it  impossible  that  I 
should  continue  to  represent  the  House  in  that  responsible  situa 
tion  without  misrepresenting  myself,  but,  insignificant  as  I  may 
be  personally,  I  am  unwilling,  when  this  matter  crosses  the  ocean, 
as  it  will  cross  it,  I  can  not  consent  to  seem  to  submit,  or  to  ac- 


IN  REGARD  TO  MEXICAN  AFFAIRS  (1864.)  479 

quiesce  in,  or  have  part  or  lot  with  this  grave  surrender  of  the 
power  of  the  people ;  for,  Mr.  Speaker,  whatever  the  insignificance 
of  the  person  who  moves  this  question,  his  connection  with  this 
vote  elevates  him  to  its  importance ;  and  I  will  tell  you  there  is 
more  than  one  crowned  head  in  Europe  that  now  looks  anxiously 
to  the  conduct  of  this  House  upon  this  very  question,  and  a  shout 
will  go  up  from  one  end  of  despotic  Europe  to  the  other  when  it 
is  known  that  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  has  confessed  that  its 
resolves  are  vain  breath  before  the  dictation  of  the  President,  and 
that  the  President  is  the  United  States,  as  Louis  Napoleon  is 
France. 

Insignificant  though  I  be,  I  am  not  humble  enough  to  allow  my 
name  to  be  associated  with  that  humiliating  abdication. 

With  all  kindness  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  so  kindly  ex 
pressed  themselves  here  to-day — a  kindness  which  overwhelms 
me  sensibly,  a  kindness  frequently  expressed  heretofore  in  pri 
vate,  but  never  before  so  publicly — I  beg  they  will  not  let  that 
kindly  feeling  enter  into  consideration  on  this  vote,  but  will  do 
as  I  ask  them — simply  relieve  me  from  acting  longer  in  this  re 
sponsible  position  where  I  so  gravely  misrepresent  the  House 
which  has  honored  me. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    THE    NAVY  DEPAKT- 
MENT.— MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS. 

ON  the  3d  and  Gth  of  February  the  House  resumed  the  consideration 
of  the  Naval  Appropriation  Bills.  Mr.  Davis  had  on  previous  occa 
sions  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  management  of  the  Navy 
Department,  not  only  in  regard  to  its  conduct  toward  and  disposition  of 
officers,  but  particularly  respecting  the  expenditures  for  monitors  and 
iron-clad  ships.  On  this  occasion  he  expressed  his  views  at  length  on 
those  points  in  the  following  speeches  : 

The  House  resolved  itself  into  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the 
Union  (Mr.  Washburnc,  of  Illinois,  in  the  chair),  and  resumed  the  consideration  of 
the  bill  (House  of  Rep.,  No.  67G)  making  appropriations  for  the  naval  service  for 
the  year  ending  June  30,  18GG,  the  pending  question  being  the  amendment  submit 
ted  by  Mr.  Davis,  of  Maryland,  to  add  to  the  bill  the  following : 

Provided,  That  no  money  appropriated  for  the  naval  service  shall  be  expended 
otherwise  than  in  accordance  with  the  following  provision,  so  far  as  it  is  applicable ; 
that  is  to  say,  that  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate, 
shall  appoint  a  Board  of  Admiralty,  which  shall  consist  of  the  vice-admiral  and  one 
rear  admiral,  one  commodore,  one  captain,  one  commander,  and  one  lieutenant 
commander,  over  which  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  or  the  officer  highest  in  rank 
present  shall  preside  ;  and  when  the  subject  under  consideration  shall  appertain  to 
the  duties  of  any  bureau  in  the  Navy  Department,  the  chief  of  such  bureau  shall  be 
a  member  of  the  Board,  and  entitled  to  sit  and  vote  on  the  consideration  of  the 
subject. 

SEC.  —  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Board  shall  deliberate  in  common  and 
advise  the  Secretary  on  any  matters  submitted  by  him  relating  to  naval  organization, 
naval  legislation,  the  construction,  equipment,  and  armaments  of  vessels,  navy  yards, 
and  other  naval  establishments,  and  the  direction,  employment,  and  disposition  of 
the  naval  forces  in  time  of  war.  All  such  opinions  shall  be  recorded. 

SEC.  —  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  vessel  of  war  shall  be  built  or  material 
ly  altered,  nor  any  guns  of  new  construction  ordered  or  adopted,  nor  any  engine  for 
any  vessel  of  war  adopted  or  ordered,  nor  any  permanent  structure  for  naval  serv 
ice  executed,  until  the  plans,  estimates,  proposals,  and  contracts  for  the  same  shall 
have  been  submitted  to  the  Board,  and  its  opinion  and  advice  thereon  communicated 
in  writing  to  the  Secretary ;  nor  shall  any  patented  invention  be  bought  or  adopted 
for  the  naval  service  without  first  the  opinion  of  the  Board  thereon  having  been 
taken ;  and  all  experiments  decided  to  test  inventions,  and  naval  plans  and  struc- 


ADMININISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPAKTMENT.         481 

tares,  shall  be  conducted  under  the  inspection  of  the  Board,  or  members  thereof 
named  by  the  Secretary,  and  submitted  to  the  Board  for  its  opinion  thereon. 

SEC.  —  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  invitations  for  plans  or  proposals  for 
any  of  the  works  above  mentioned  shall  be  prepared  by  the  Board,  subject  to  the  ap 
proval  of  the  Secretary ;  and  all  bids  or  offers,  or  proposals  for  the  same,  shall  be 
opened  in  the  presence  of  the  Board,  and  the  award  made  by  it,  subject  to  the  ap 
proval  of  the  Secretary. 

SEC. — -And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Secretary  may  add  to  the  Board,  from 
time  to  time,  other  officers  of  the  navy  eligible  to  the  position  of  chief  of  bureau,  not 
exceeding  three  at  any  time,  for  consultation  on  any  of  the  above  subjects.  The 
Board  may  take  the  opinion  of  eminent  practical  engineers,  mechanics,  machinists, 
and  architects,  in  their  respective  branches  of  art  or  industry,  when  in  their  opinion 
the  public  service  will  be  promoted  by  it,  and  pay  them  such  reasonable  compensa 
tion  as  the  Secretary  may  approve. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Maryland,  said : 

MR.  CHAIRMAN, — I  should  have  been  glad,  but  for  the  import 
ance  of  this  subject,  to  have  allowed  the  vote  to  be  taken  upon 
the  amendment  which  I  have  offered  without  making  any  obser 
vations  on  it ;  but  the  condition  of  the  navy,  and  its  great  import 
ance  in  the  adjustment  of  accounts  which  we  will  have  to  adjust 
with  other  nations  so  soon  as  the  rebellion  shall  be  suppressed, 
make  it  a  matter  of  vital  moment  that  we  should  not  be  deluded 
by  any  apparent  strength,  that  we  should  not  allow  weakness  to 
be  covered  up  under  great  numbers,  whether  of  vessels  or  of  guns, 
nor  allow  ourselves  to  be  persuaded  by  articles  adroitly  inserted 
in  newspapers  in  various  portions  of  the  country,  into  the  belief 
that  we  are  a  naval  power  of  the  first  magnitude,  till  that  illusion 
is  dispelled  by  some  day  of  disastrous  memory.  For  these  rea 
sons  I  desire  to  offer  a  few  observations  in  support  of  the  amend 
ment  which  I  have  proposed. 

This  amendment  is  not  introduced  upon  my  own  judgment,  is 
not  one  hastily  drawn  and  brought  before  the  House  to  provoke 
a  discussion,  but  it  was  introduced  after  great  deliberation — not 
deliberation  in  my  own  mind,  but  deliberation  in  connection  with 
the  first  officers  of  the  navy  of  the  United  States,  the  men  who 
must  bear  our  flag,  navigate  our  ships,  fight  our  guns,  and  main 
tain  the  honor  of  our  country  with  the  means  we  place  at  their 
disposal.  They  are  the  men  who  tremble  at  the  present  condi 
tion  of  the  navy. 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Spalding],  on  the 
Naval  Committee,  was  prompt  and  anxious  to  thrust  aside,  un- 

H  H 


482  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

considered,  this  amendment  when  it  was  introduced  the  other  day, 
because  it  was  under  consideration  before  the  Naval  Committee. 
But  it  is  proper  to  say  that  the  bill  was  referred  to  the  Naval 
Committee  at  the  last  session  —  not  late  in  the  session  —  three 
months  before  its  close.  And  if  they  have  not  considered  it,  it  is 
because  they  do  not  wish  a  vote  upon  it,  or  do  not  consider  it 
worthy  of  consideration.  I  have  more  than  once  applied  to  one 
or  two  gentlemen  upon  that  committee  to  take  the  bill  up  and 
consider  it,  and  report  it,  even  if  they  reported  unfavorably  upon 
it,  so  that  the  country  might  have  an  opportunity  of  having  the 
judgment  of  this  House  and  the  vote  of  this  House  upon  that 
measure. 

Perhaps  the  House  will  understand  why  that  report  is  made 
now,  when  it  can  be  no  longer  delayed.  At  an  earlier  stage,  as 
an  independent  measure,  there  would  have  been  a  chance  of  hav 
ing  a  consideration  of  the  bill.  When  I  saw  that  there  was  a  pur 
pose  that  there  should  be  no  consideration  of  it,  I  moved  it  as  an 
amendment  to  the  Appropriation  Bill.  The  Naval  Committee  were 
not  then  ready  to  express  their  judgment  upon  it.  Now  that  it  is 
here,  and  the  House  must  act  upon  it,  they  have  suddenly  made 
up  their  opinions — upon  what  consideration  it  is  for  them  to  say 
—and  throw  the  weight  of  their  judgment  against  it  when  it  is 
before  the  House.  Sir,  their  judgment  will,  of  course,  not  have 
the  weight  and  consideration  of  a  committee,  but  that  they  have 
deliberated  for  nearly  a  year  without  deciding  on  it  looks  as 
though  their  opinion  were  given  now  for  the  purpose  of  accom 
plishing  what  they  did  not  accomplish  by  smothering  the  bill. 

There  are,  I  agree,  grave  objections  to  incorporating  important 
measures  in  the  appropriation  bills.  But,  before  this  amendment 
was  moved,  the  House,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote,  had  greatly 
changed  the  organization  of  the  navy  by  increasing  largely  the 
number  of  cadets  allowed  at  the  Naval  Academy.  And  the  ob 
jection  urged  to  incorporating  this  amendment  upon  the  Appro 
priation  Bill  struck  me  as  very  remarkable,  when  an  amendment 
of  that  kind  had  already  been  adopted  within  half  an  hour  before 
I  made  my  motion,  on  the  motion  of  the  honorable  gentleman  now 
in  the  chair  [Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois],  amended  and  enlarged 
upon  the  motion  of  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means  [Mr.  Stevens] ;  so  that  there  are  circumstances  in  which 
grave  and  important  measures  may  with  propriety  be  put  into  an 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  483 

Appropriation  Bill ;  and  while  that  precedent  fully  justifies  this 
amendment  in  point  of  parliamentary  law,  there  is  an  additional 
consideration  why  this  should  be  incorporated  here.  The  decla 
ration  of  the  gentleman  from  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  suf 
ficiently  shows  that  this  measure  does  not  meet  with  favor  at  the 
other  end  of  the  avenue ;  that  the  people  whose  hands  are  to  be 
tied  by  the  presence  of  responsible  advisers  prefer  that  the  fetters 
should  not  be  put  upon  them.  And  we  have  experienced  more 
than  once  in  this  Congress  that  measures  of  national  moment, 
passed  unanimously  by  this  House,  have  rested  unacted  upon  else 
where.  Sir,  there  is  small  prospect  of  securing  the  passage  of  any 
measure  which  has  to  be  forced  upon  opponents  at  the  other  end 
of  the  avenue.  It  is  impossible  to  get  even  a  vote  upon  such 
measures  unless  they  are  placed  upon  bills  that  put  them  before 
the  public  eye,  and  require  a  vote  either  in  the  affirmative  or  neg 
ative.  I  avow,  sir,  that  it  was  not  to  insure  the  passage  of  the 
amendment,  but  to  compel  a  vote  on  it,  that  I  moved  it  when 
I  did. 

Mr.  Chairman,  we  are  creating  a  navy  at  enormous  cost ;  not 
increasing  a  navy ;  not  merely  continuing  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  a  navy ;  we  are  creating  one.  "We  are  driven  to  the  necessity 
of  passing  from  a  second  or  a  third  rate  into  the  class  of  a  first- 
rate  naval  power,  and  the  question  we  have  to  decide  is  under 
what  responsibility,  by  whose  advice,  under  whose  auspices,  shall 
that  great  change  be  made?  We  have  now  had  the  experience 
of  four  years  of  war.  The  changes  made  have  been  made  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  his  irresponsible 
assistant  secretary,  who  is  the  real  and  acting  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  and  of  the  chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Engineers ;  and  beyond 
that  responsibility  there  is  no  responsibility  to  the  people  or  the 
country  for  any  thing  that  has  been  done  heretofore  or  any  thing 
that  may  be  done  hereafter. 

What  has  been  the  result?  We  are  taught  to  believe  that  we 
are  a  great  naval  power.  We  have  the  semblance  certainly ; 
whether  we  have  the  reality  is  something  that  remains  to  be  seen. 
We  are  told  by  authority  that  we  have  671  vessels  of  war,  and 
that  we  have  4610  guns  afloat,  or  for  which  vessels  are  being  built 
If  that  be  so,  then  we  are  a  great  naval  power,  though  perhaps  not 
the  first  class.  But,  sir,  it  is  important  to  analyze  that  statement, 
and  see  what  there  is  of  substance  in  it — how  many  guns  there 


484  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

are  afloat  that  must  go  down  in  the  first  collision,  how  many  that 
can  bear  the  flag  of  the  republic  in  the  face  of  a  great  naval  pow 
er.  When  we  scan  the  figures  given  us  by  the  Department,  and 
analyze  in  the  light  of  the  reports  of  the  Department  the  origin, 
structure,  and  speed  of  the  vessels  which  bear  the  guns,  and  apply 
to  it  the  judgment  of  naval  men,  the  laws  and  conditions  which 
are  to  be  observed  in  the  construction  of  naval  vessels — matters 
upon  which  I  am  not  entitled  to  express  an  opinion,  but  on  which 
I  may  quote  the  opinion  of  those  who  are  professionally  compe 
tent — we  find  that  these  figures  dwindle  to  more  modest  propor 
tions  ;  that  the  real  navy  of  the  nation  is  greatly  less  than  the  ap 
parent  navy  of  the  report. 

The  aggregate  given  by  the  Secretary's  report  is  651  vessels, 
with  4610  guns.  But  there  are  112  sailing  vessels,  with  850  guns. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  tells  us  that  sailing  vessels  are  useless 
for  the  purposes  of  modern  war.  It  is  useless,  after  that  author 
ity,  to  quote  any  other ;  for  if  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  knows 
it,  then  every  midshipman  at  least  knows  it,  and  every  body  else 
in  the  country.  Then  850  guns  are  to  be  taken  from  the  appar 
ent  power  of  the  navy.  "We  have,  besides,  174  paddle-wheel 
steamers  bought ;  that  is  to  say,  merchant  vessels,  with  all  their 
machinery  exposed,  so  that  a  single  shot  subjects  them  to  the  fate 
of  the  Hatteras,  exploded  and  sunk  by  the  Alabama  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  They  are  not  war  vessels,  built  for  naval  service,  but 
ordinary  mercantile  vessels,  purchased  by  the  United  States  for 
the  purposes  of  the  blockade.  Now,  sir,  I  do  not  criticise  the  pro 
priety  of  those  purchases ;  on  the  contrary,  I  think  they  were  emi 
nently  wise  when  they  were  made.  "Whether  they  were  made  as 
economically  as  possible  is  a  matter  that  I  do  not  propose  to  con 
sider.  But  to  place  them  among  the  war  vessels  of  the  navy,  and 
to  think  that  those  174  vessels,  carrying  921  guns,  are  to  be  ac 
counted  part  of  the  naval  strength  of  the  United  States  in  the 
event  of  a  naval  war,  is  a  delusion  that  must  result  in  disaster. 

There  are,  besides,  149  screw  vessels,  light  propeller  vessels, 
likewise  bought  from  the  mercantile  marine.  Every  naval  man 
knows  that  no  vessel  constructed  for  mere  mercantile  purposes  is 
or  can  be  made  a  vessel  of  war  fit  to  be  placed  in  line  of  battle  in 
a  great  naval  struggle.  They  answer  to  catch  blockade-runners ; 
they  will  answer  possibly  to  cruise  after  the  commerce  of  the  en 
emy.  But  when  the  flag  of  England  shall  float  over  a  fleet  repre- 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  485 

senting  in  this  day  that  which  Nelson  commanded  at  Trafalgar, 
the  nation  that  meets  such  a  fleet  with  vessels  built  for  the  mer 
chant  service  is  doomed  to  disaster ;  and  when  we  have  a  state 
ment  which  includes  such  vessels  as  a  part  of  the  naval  strength 
of  the  country,  no  man  who  values  the  honor  of  the  country,  or 
its  safety  in  a  day  of  naval  battle,  can  permit  such  a  statement  to 
pass  without  saying  that  it  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  When  you 
sum  up  those  vessels,  you  find,  from  the  aggregate  of  671,  you 
have  stricken  off  435  vessels  and  2385  guns,  and  left  236  vessels 
bearing  2225  guns. 

But  let  us  go  a  step  farther.  There  are  likewise  of  the  vessels 
built  for  naval  purposes,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Department, 
47  paddle-wheel  steamers  —  double-enders,  as  they  are  called  — 
ferry-boats,  river  steamers,  hawks  to  catch  blockade-runners  ;  but 
for  a  day  of  naval  battle  no  naval  man  will  allow  them  to  be  called 
war  vessels  at  all.  Their  machinery  is  all  exposed,  their  very 
boilers  are  exposed.  Whatever  may  be  their  availability  for 
blockade  purposes,  though  they  escape  a  chance  shot  from  a  rov 
er,  as  part  of  the  naval  force  of  the  United  States  they  must  be 
stricken  from  the  list,  for  it  is  not  possible  they  could  survive  a 
collision  with  vessels  of  equal  armament  constructed  on  naval 
principles.  And  we  must  also  deduct  five  paddle- wheel. steamers 
of  the  old  navy.  These  two  classes  of  paddle-wheel  steamers 
carry  524  guns ;  and  if  they  are  deducted  from  the  2225  guns, 
there  remain  1701  guns  on  184  vessels  of  war  properly  so  called. 
So,  when  we  have  analyzed  the  real  naval  force  of  the  country 
that  stands  between  us  and  aggression  from  abroad,  we  are  re 
duced  to  the  number  of  184  vessels  and  1701  guns — a  respecta 
ble  increase,  but  an  increase  which  leaves  us  exposed  to  over 
whelming  disaster  if  we  stop  there ;  a  difference  between  the  of 
ficial  statement  and  the  real  condition  of  the  naval  force  of  the 
government  to  which  the  attention  of  the  people  should  be  called. 

In  order  to  give  a  clearer  idea  of  the  real  force  existing  and 
what  has  been  added  by  the  Department  since  the  rebellion  broke 
out,  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  of  these  184  vessels,  25  are  screw 
steamers  of  the  old  navy,  which  I  suspect  can  sink  all  the  wooden 
vessels  which  have  been  added  of  the  new  navy  by  the  mere 
weight  of  their  batteries ;  62  iron-clads,  of  which  22  are  not  afloat, 
leaving  xonly  40  in  service ;  and  97  wooden  vessels,  mostly  of 
small  size ;  none  at  least  of  large  size ;  none  beyond  the  grade  of 


486  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

a  sloop-of-war  of  moderate  size,  at  present  afloat ;  for  28  vessels 
included  in  that  97  are,  I  believe,  now  upon  the  stocks,  and  that 
28  include  all  th,e  larger  cruisers  mentioned  in  the  Secretary's  re 
port  ;  so  that  our  fleet  actually  afloat  is  reduced  to  about  134  ves 
sels,  bearing  1150  guns.  And  there  we  stand  to-day  if  we  have 
a  declaration  of  war  with  England  to-morrow. 

The  organization  of  the  Navy  Department,  as  I  have  already 
said,  leaves  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  construction  of  all  na 
val  vessels,  their  forms,  structure,  armament,  machinery,  and  ma 
terials,  limited  only  by  the  amount  of  money  appropriated  for 
their  construction,  at  the  irresponsible  discretion  of  the  three  per 
sons  I  have  named ;  for  the  organization  of  the  Navy  Department 
is  a  secretary  who  administers  it,  an  assistant  secretary  who  ad 
ministers  him,  and  the  chiefs  of  bureaus  who  are  the  ministerial 
fingers  and  hands  of  the  gentleman  at  the  head  of  the  Navy  De 
partment.  Such  an  organization  of  a  Navy  Department  exists 
nowhere  else  in  the  civilized  world  among  naval  powers.  In  our 
fast  American  style,  we  sneer  at  the  slow  motions  and  grave  de 
liberation  that  mark  every  step  of  the  great  naval  powers  of  the 
world,  France  and  England,  yet  to-morrow  we  are  unable  to  cope 
with  either  of  them  with  one  half  of  their  force  in  ranged  battle 
on  the  ocean. 

Their  organization,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  a  different  one.  In  En 
gland  we  know  that  the  office  of  Lord  High  Admiral  is  exercised 
by  a  board  of  six  commissioners,  who  are  called  Lords  of  Admi 
ralty,  and  a  chief  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty.  The  First  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty  is  a  member  of  the  cabinet,  and  the  Secretary 
must  be  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  where  he  is  charged 
with  the  naval  estimates.  The  powers  which  are  exercised  in 
England  by  the  Board  of  Admiralty  are  here  exercised  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  Board  of  Admiralty  in  England  is 
charged  with  the  responsible  and  discretionary  administration  of 
the  Navy  as  the  Secretary  is  here,  both  having  ministerial  officers 
under  them  which  with  us  are  called  chiefs  of  bureaus. 

The  French  navy  is  administered  by  the  minister  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Marine  and  the  Colonies.  He  is  surrounded  by  a 
Council  of  Admiralty,  composed  of  three  naval  officers  of  high 
grade,  vice  or  rear  admirals,  and  three  high  officers  of  colonial 
administration,  named  by  the  crown,  presided  over  by  the  minis 
ter,  and  charged  to  give  its  advice  on  all  measures  relating  to 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  487 

maritime  and  colonial  legislation,  the  administration  of  the  colo 
nies,  the  organization  of  the  naval  force,  the  modes  of  supplying 
it,  naval  structures  and  buildings,  and  to  the  direction  and  em 
ployment  of  the  naval  force  in  time  of  war.  This  council  is  in 
tended  for  advice  on  the  higher  matters  of  legislation  and  admin 
istration.  But  the  minister  is  provided  with  another  Council  of 
Naval  Works,  composed  of  the  inspector  general  of  naval  con 
struction,  the  inspector  of  artillery,  the  inspectors  general  of  hy 
draulic  constructions,  two  captains  of  the  navy,  a  director  of  naval 
constructions,  and  an  engineer  of  the  navy,  acting  as  secretary, 
with  a  deliberative  voice,  the  whole  presided  over  by  one  of  the 
Council  of  Admiralty,  and  charged  to  give  its  advice  on  matters 
submitted  to  it  by  the  minister,  on  the  plans  and  estimates  for  na 
val,  constructions,  hydraulic  works,  material  of  artillery,  and  all 
works  in  navy  yards,  on  the  preparation  of  regulations  for  the 
execution  of  naval  works  of  all  kinds,  on  the  preparation  of  pro 
posals  for  contracts  for  any  of  the  above  objects,  on  the  adoption 
of  inventions,  and  every  thing  relating  to  improvements  of  naval 
structures,  artillery,  or  hydraulic  works.  Thus  the  minister  Sec 
retary  of  State  for  the  Marine  and  Colonies,  aided  by  a  large  na 
val  staff  of  professional  officers  for  professional  advice,  is  charged 
with  the  responsible  administration  of  the  French  navy.  They 
deliberate  in  common,  constitute  the  council  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  as  we  should  call  him,  his  cabinet,  whose  advice  is  to 
guide  and  enlighten  the  administrative  discretion  of  the  minister. 
It  is  to  the  minister,  aided  by  the  deliberations  of  those  responsi 
ble  bodies,  that  the  great  duties  of  creating  and  employing  the 
French  navy  is  confided. 

"What  I  propose  is  this:  that  we  shall  create  a  Board  of  Admi 
ralty,  adhering  to  the  American  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  executive 
or  administrative  officer,  but  surrounding  him  with  responsible 
advisers,  appointed  by  the  President,  not  depending  upon  .the  ca 
price  and  will  of  the  Navy  Department ;  men  of  professional  stand 
ing,  competent  ability,  and  of  high  and  permanent  rank,  without 
whose  knowledge  and  advice  nothing  can  be  done  within  the  pur 
view  of  the  bill ;  not  that  their  assent  shall  be  necessary  to  any 
order  or  act,  but  that  no  material  step  shall  be  taken  with  refer 
ence  to  the  various  subjects  included  in  the  bill  without  their  ad 
vice  having  been  previously  taken  in  writing  and  spread  upon 
the  records  of  the  Department.  The  general  effect  of  that  is,  that 


488  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  mere  improvidence,  mere  charlatan 
ism,  mere  ignorance,  or  the  mere  application  of  civil  ideas  to  mil 
itary  matters.  We  have  learned  something  during  this  war ;  we 
have  learned  that  every  man  is  not  born  a  soldier  or  a  sailor :  he 
may  be  born  a  President  of  the  United  States,  but  he  is  not  born 
with  the  special  knowledge  belonging  to  and  required  of  this  De 
partment.  What  is  necessary  in  order  that  there  shall  be  a  navy 
created  is  that  there  shall  be  men  of  competent  professional  knowl 
edge,  who  shall  advise  in  a  responsible  form,  authentically,  in 
writing ;  and  if  their  advice  be  neglected,  the  responsibility  will 
lie  with  those  who  neglect  it.  The  mere  existence  of  such  a  re 
sponsible  body  of  advisers  infinitely  diminishes  the  chances  of 
error,  or  corruption,  or  ignorance,  or  plausible  and  dangerous 
charlatanism,  or  rash  and  improvident  conduct.  It  will  be  to  the 
Secretary  what  the  cabinet  is  to  the  President — an  aid,  not  a  hin 
drance. 

We  have  repeatedly  resorted  to  temporary  boards  of  this  kind ; 
one  of  them  was  adopted  in  1860  to  consider  the  application  of 
steam  to  our  sailing  vessels ;  another  was  organized  by  the  De 
partment  to  devise  the  plan  of  blockade  ;  another  was  organized 
under  a  law  of  Congress  for  experiments  in  iron-clads ;  and  an 
other,  summoned  by  the  Department,  was  called  to  advise  upon 
the  engines  of  the  navy.  Others  are  now,  we  are  informed  by  the 
report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  engaged  in  investigating  va 
rious  questions  respecting  steam  machinery.  But  boards  of  this 
kind  are  made  pro  hcec  vice — are  liable  to  the  particular  influence 
prevailing  at  the  moment ;  made  rather  to  accomplish  a  particular 
purpose  than  to  give  independent  advice ;  and  if  created  under 
the  authority  of  Congress,  and  therefore  of  an  independent  char 
acter,  they  are  temporary  in  their  purposes,  their  influence  is  not 
permanent,  and  the  effect  of  their  opinions  passes  off  the  moment 
they  are  dissolved. 

What  I  propose  by  the  bill  is  that  there  shall  be  a  board  com 
posed  of  men  of  the  first  responsibility  in  the  navy,  which  shall 
be  headed  by  the  vice-admiral,  who  is  neither  an  old  fogy,  nor  a 
charlatan,  nor  an  enemy  of  the  Secretary,  but  one  of  the  great 
officers  of  the  navy,  possessing  the  confidence  of  the  Department, 
whose  opinion  they  ought  to  be  bound  to  consult  and  respect,  for 
whom  the  nation  has  created  a  new  title  and  new  grade,  whom  all 
the  officers  of  the  navy  will  cheerfully  follow,  and  constituted  of 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  489 

the  other  officers  of  designated  rank,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Pres 
ident  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  to  advise  the  Secretary  in  all 
matters  relating  to  naval  organization. 

While  I  can  not  go  into  the  details  of  the  condition  of  the  Navy 
Department  at  this  time,  I  think  that  the  opinion  of  the  naval  of 
ficers  is  that  it  is  a  failure  as  a  machinery  for  successful  adminis 
tration.  There  is  no  responsibility  any  where  to  be  found ;  every 
thing  is  managed  by  a  subordinate  in  the  name  of  the  Secretary, 
and  it  is  more  to  that  than  any  intentional  abuse  of  power  or  neg 
lect  on  the  part  of  the  Secretary  that  I  attribute  the  rash  empir 
icism,  the  scandalous  improvidence,  and  the  costly  failures  which 
mark  the  administration  of  that  Department.  The  way  to  avoid 
that  is  not  to  howl  about  them  in  Congress,  but  to  provide  the 
Secretary  with  responsible  advisers  on  naval  construction  and  the 
armament  and  machinery  of  vessels,  on  the  organization  and  loca 
tion  of  navy  yards. 

The  House  has  been  deprived  of  the  services  of  the  Committee 
on  Naval  Affairs  a  large  portion  of  the  last  year,  while  they  were 
engaged  in  investigations  to  advise  the  Navy  Department  on  the 
selection  of  a  navy  yard  for  iron-clads — a  matter  which,  if  they 
were  competent  to  determine,  I  submit  any  one  single  experi 
enced  officer  of  the  navy  was  more  competent  to  determine. 
And  when  my  friend,  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Schenck],  who  accompanied  them  on  one  trip,  was  a  little  sensi 
tive  at  my  doubts  of  their  competency,  he  could  not  refuse  his  as 
sent  to  my  avowal  that  I  would  take  with  more  confidence  the 
opinion  of  his  distinguished  brother  of  the  navy  than  his  own 
upon  that  subject.  I  think,  if  there  had  been  a  board  of  compe 
tent  advisers  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  on  the  topics  embraced 
in  the  second  section  of  this  bill,  that  there  are  some  expeditions 
that  would  not  have  been  undertaken  by  the  Navy  Department ; 
I  think  the  nation  would  have  been  saved  from  some  failures ; 
and  I  think  some  successes  would  have  been  followed  up,  and  the 
fruits  of  victory  reaped  which  to  this  day  are  barren.  I  think 
half  a  dozen  rebel  cruisers  could  not  have  swept  our  commerce 
from  the  ocean,  or  driven  it  to  take  refuge  under  foreign  flags, 
and  destroyed  many  millions  of  property,  and  lighted  every  sea 
with  the  conflagration  of  our  ships  for  three  years  with  absolute 
impunity,  had  any  body  of  competent  naval  officers  been  invited 
to  devise  a  systematic  plan  for  their  pursuit  and  capture.  I  think 


490  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

that  the  great  day  at  Port  Eoyal  would  have  produced  something 
more  than  a  secure  foothold  for  the  blockading  squadron.  With 
proper  advice  around  the  Secretary  when  Savannah  and  Charles 
ton  were  exposed  half  armed,  that  blow  would  have  been  follow 
ed  up  by  others  which  should  have  reduced  those  places;  we 
should  have  been  spared  the  humiliation  of  a  fruitless  bombard 
ment  before  Charleston  for  a  year  and  a  half — a  bombardment 
utterly  ineffective,  leaving  the  rebel  fortifications  there  to-day  as 
absolutely  beyond  the  reach  of  our  naval  forces  as  they  were  be 
fore  Gilmore  battered  Sumter.  It  would  not  have  been  left  for 
Sherman  and  his  army,  after  three  or  four  years  of  war  in  the 
West,  to  march  across  the  continent  and  take  Savannah,  but  it 
would  have  been  taken  long  ago  by  forces  actually  there.  But, 
without  any  competent  advisers,  the  Navy  Department  rested 
upon  the  laurels  of  Port  Eoyal,  and  left  it  barren  to  the  nation  of 
half  its  rightful  fruits  which  the  victor  was  so  eager  to  gather.  I 
think,  if  the  head  of  the  Department  had  had  proper  advisers, 
there  would  have  been  no  such  thing  as  an.  attack  upon  three 
hundred  guns  in  Charleston  Harbor  by  thirty-six  guns,  if  any  na 
val  opinions,  good  or  bad,  retired  or  active,  had  been  listened  to 
or  even  asked  in  the  Navy  Department.  It  would  not  have  been 
reserved  to  the  Department  to  vindicate  naval  opinion  and  con 
demn  its  own  rash  presumption  on  that  occasion  by  sending  four 
hundred  and  fifty  guns  to  batter  Fort  Fisher  with  its  fifty  or  sixty 
guns,  after  sending  thirty-six  guns  to  tear  in  pieces  the  enormous 
fortifications  of  Charleston  bristling  with  three  hundred  guns. 
One  or  the  other  is  an  unspeakable  folly ;  and  history  has  already 
declared  which. 

But  what  I  wish  more  particularly  to  remark  upon  is  what  has 
been  accomplished  by  the  Navy  Department.  Where  are  we  now, 
and  how  did  we  get  there?  I  desire  that  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  I  am  not  now  seeking  to  cast  imputations  upon  any 
one,  to  show  his  incompetency,  but  to  expose  the  evils  of  a  mere 
ly  personal  and  irresponsible  administration  of  the  Department, 
and  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a  remedy.  I  make  no  sug 
gestions  for  which  I  do  not  propose  an  adequate  remedy.  I  state 
the  failure  that  gentlemen  may  be  enabled  to  judge  of  the  pro 
priety  of  the  remedy.  If  they  can  say  that  a  lack  of  advice  does 
not  exist,  then  let  them  say  so.  But  if  they  admit  the  results, 
then  give  me  a  judgment  upon  my  remedy. 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  491 

The  first  great  thing  that  we  are  called  upon  to  deal  with  is  the 
subject  of  iron-clads.  Congress  was  conscious  that  it  was  going 
into  a  new  department  of  naval  expenditure ;  but  it  failed  in  the 
drawing  of  the  act  which  it  passed  upon  that  subject.  It  created 
a  board  of  skilled  and  eminent  naval  officers,  and  upon  their  ad 
vice  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  authorized  to  cause  one  or 
more  iron-clads  to  be  built.  That  board,  of  which  Admiral  Charles 
Davis,  of  Boston,  was  the  scientific  head,  met  and  advised  the  con 
struction,  upon  a  consideration  of  multifarious  plans  of  one  of  each 
of  three  types  of  vessels,  which  are  now  known  to  history  as  the 
Galena,  the  Ironsides,  and  the  Monitor.  They  were  constructed 
merely  as  experiments,  their  value  to  be  subsequently  determ 
ined  ;  to  be  determined,  I  take  it,  not  by  acts  of  Congress,  not  by 
the  irresponsible  and  unscientific  judgment  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  however  honest,  respectable,  and  praiseworthy,  but  by  com 
petent  men  to  advise  after  the  idea  had  been  embodied  in  a  vessel 
of  war,  and  was  ready  to  be  tried  or  had  been  tried  in  action. 

Now  what  were  the  facts?  Had  the  board  existed  which  I 
propose,  we  would  not  be  suffering  as  we  now  are  from  the  neg 
lect  of  those  precautions.  How  came  it  that  the  monitors  which 
we  know  now  to  be  failures  were  multiplied,  while  the  Department 
neglected  the  Ironsides,  the  only  one  of  all  the  iron -clad  vessels, 
with  perhaps  one  doubtful  exception,  that  has  met  the  approval 
of  naval  officers. 

The  Monitor  accidentally  came  into  Hampton  Eoads  as  the 
Merrimac  was  trying  to  destroy,  as  it  had  already  destroyed, 
some  of  our  vessels.  A  collision  took  place.  Neither  party  was 
destroyed ;  neither  vessel  was  sunk ;  neither  party  was  crippled, 
it  is  said ;  and  the  country  ran  wild  over  two  guns  in  a  cheese-box 
on  a  raft  having  done  any  thing,  and  not  been  defeated.  People 
forget  that  our  vessels  were  either  sailing  vessels  at  anchor  which 
were  destroyed,  or  steamers  which  had  run  aground  in  the  nar 
row  channel;  that  the  Merrimac  drew  more  water  than  they  and 
could  not  reach  them,  and  was  no  stronger  than  the  Minnesota, 
her  duplicate,  and  therefore  weaker  when  burdened  by  her  armor, 
and  liable  to  be  run  down  by  our  steamers  when  afloat,  which 
were  beyond  reach  of  the  Merrimac  when  aground.  And  upon 
the  simple  fact  that  the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac  exchanged 
shots  and  did  not  sink,  without  consultation  with  one  single  naval 
officer  any  where,  without  the  judgment  of  any  one  professional 


492  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

man  upon  the  floating  or  the  fighting  qualities  of  this  class  of  ves 
sels,  without  any  additional  consideration  except  that  the  Depart 
ment  tells  us  it  had  been  well  persuaded  in  its  own  mind  before 
hand  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy  that  that  type  of  iron-clad  was  to 
be  successful  and  had  proved  itself  successful,  the  Secretary  orders 
twenty  of  them  at  a  cost  of  from  four  hundred  thousand  to  four 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars,  amounting  to  $9,200,000. 
This  was  done  upon  the  fight  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Mer- 
rimac,  and  no  other  consideration  whatever.  So  the  Department 
tells  you  in  its  report. 

From  that  day  to  this  monitors  have  been  a  gold  mine  for  iron 
contractors,  and  to  doubt  their  perfect  success  is  as  much  as  any 
naval  officer's  chances  of  command  or  promotion  are  worth. 

That  is  the  consideration  that  was  given  to  this  great  topic. 
On  an  accidental  collision  between  one  vessel  and  another,  with 
out  any  of  its  scientific  bearings  having  been  adjudged  and  con 
sidered  by  competent  officers,  $9,200,000  were  spent  in  construct 
ing  upon  that  type,  without  any  material  change,  twenty  vessels 
of  that  character.  And  so  closely  did  they  stick  to  the  model, 
that  one  of  the  most  distinguished  officers  of  the  navy,  who  now 
enjoys  the  highest  considerations  of  the  Navy  Department,  told 
me  that  he  had  to  battle  day  after  day  with  Ericsson  and  the  men 
who  were  building  them  to  get  them  to  put  upon  those  vessels 
the  most  ordinary  naval  appliances  to  fit  them  to  be  used  at  all  in 
Charleston  Harbor. 

Following  up  that,  the  Department  proceeded  likewise,  without 
any  naval  advice  or  investigation,  to  order  the  Dictator  and  the 
Puritan,  under  the  authority  of  Congress,  which  improvidently 
left  every  thing  to  the  Department  and  the  contractors  and  specu 
lators,  at  a  cost  of  $2,300,000.  Each  monitor  was  to  carry  about 
two  guns,  which  would  make  each  gun  cost  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The  Dictator  and  the  Puritan  were 
to  carry,  I  think  the  former  about  two,  the  latter  four  guns, 
which  would  make  the  cost  of  each  gun  of  the  Dictator  $575,000, 
and  of  each  gun  of  the  Puritan  $287,500.  Then  they  ordered 
the  Dunderberg,  not  yet  completed,  but  on  the  plan  of  the  case- 
mated  batteries  of  the  rebels,  likely  to  be  more  formidable  than 
the  vessels  on  the  monitor  principle,  for  she  will  have  a  battery 
of  ten  guns.  So  that  just  at  one  breath,  by  one  stroke  of  the  pen, 
the  Department  expended  in  this  type  of  vessels,  without  any  other 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  493 

consideration  or  advice  whatever,  $13,000,000.  I  submit,  sir,  that 
after  the  resolution  of  this  House,  passed  last  year,  to  make  addi 
tional  compensation  to  the  constructors  of  the  Dictator  and  Puri 
tan  in  addition  to  the  enormous  contract  already  made  with  them, 
the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  country  required  that  more  consid 
eration  should  have  been  given,  more  scientific  advice  should 
have  been  asked,  before  such  enormous  sums  were  expended  in 
forms  so  totally  new,  which  no  experience  had  justified,  which  no 
naval  opinion  had  then  advised,  and  which  no  naval  opinion  at 
this  day  now  advises. 

Then,  sir,  there  were  others  built,  I  suppose  at  the  navy  yards. 
I  do  not  see  any  details  respecting  them  in  the  reports,  and  I  can 
not  speak  in  regard  to  them.  That,  sir,  was  the  work  of  1862,  as 
the  Department  informed  us. 

In  1863,  when  the  additional  monitors  were  ordered,  to  which 
I  am  now  going  to  refer,  there  had  been  no  trial  of  the  original 
monitors  excepting  that  one  accidental  and  partial  experiment  in 
Hampton  Eoads,  in  smooth  waters,  a  drawn  battle,  and  excepting 
the  failure  on  the  Ogeechee  to  silence  a  land  battery  that  mounted 
four  guns,  and  the  experience  of  the  attack  in  Charleston  Harbor 
on  the  7th  of  April,  1863,  when  one  half  of  the  monitor  force  was 
silenced  in  forty  minutes.  On  that  discouraging  experience,  listen 
to  the  Secretary's  account  of  new  contracts  for  more  monitors. 

"  The  pressure  for  iron-clads  of  light  draught,  which  could  ascend  the  rivers,  and 
penetrate  the  sounds  and  bays  along  our  coast,  was  felt  to  be  a  necessity." 

That  is,  the  pressure  was/e?^  to  be.  a  necessity.     Well,  so  it  was. 
The  pressure  of  iron  contractors,  I  take  it,  not  of  naval  officers. 
The  Secretary  proceeds, 

"The  operations  of  our  armies  in  the  vicinity  of  the  inland  waters  and  adjacent 
to  the  rivers  required  the  constant  presence  of  gunboats.  But  the  men  thus  em 
ployed,  as  well  as  the  magazines  and  machinery  of  the  vessels,  are  exposed,  espe 
cially  in  the  narrow  streams  with  high  and  wooded  banks.  Some  vessels  and  not  a 
few  valuable  lives  have  been  lost  by  these  exposures,  and  in  order  to  afford  all  pos 
sible  protection  to  the  gallant  men  who  encounter  these  dangers,  the  Department 
considered  it  a  duty  to  provide  armored  vessels  of  light  draught  for  their  security. 
Contracts  were  entered  into  for  the  construction  of  twenty  vessels  on  the  monitor 
principle,  each  to  carry  two  eleven-inch  guns  in  order  to  be  efficient,  and  to  draw 
but  seven  feet  of  water." 

Now  contracts  for  those  vessels  were  made  in  the  course  of 
1863,  from  March  to  August.  They  cost  from  $386,000  to 
$395,000  each  vessel,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $7,800,000! 


494  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

Upon  what  advice  ?  Upon  whose  opinion  ?  Upon  what  consid 
eration?  Upon  what  specification?  Upon  what  calculation? 
To  accomplish  what  purpose?  Let  the  gentleman  who  repre 
sents  the  Department  answer.  So  carelessly,  so  absolutely  with 
out  scientific  consideration  that  the  Department  has  been  forced 
in  its  report  at  this  session  to  confess  and  smooth  over  its  failure 
in  the  construction  of  vessels' — utter,  absolute,  ridiculous,  disgrace 
ful — a  failure,  Mr.  Chairman,  which  is  inexcusable,  because,  irre 
spective  of  the  naval  or  fighting  qualities  of  a  vessel,  the  weight 
of  iron,  the  weight  of  water,  the  ratio  of  displacement,  and  exactly 
how  the  vessel  will  float,  when  dimensions  and  material  are  given, 
is  a  question  of  mathematical  and  physical  research,  settled  for 
centuries,  that  no  school-boy  would  hesitate  at  if  the  conditions  of 
the  problem  were  placed  before  him.  Yet  so  carelessly  were  these 
vessels,  at  those  enormous  sums,  ordered,  that  there  was  an  abso 
lute  failure  of  the  whole  fleet.  All  of  them  had  to  be  materially 
altered.  Some  nearly  sank  when  they  were  launched,  and  I  learn 
had  to  be  shored  up  with  barrels  in  the  harbor  before  the  work 
men  would  go  on  them  in  order  to  complete  them.  One  at  Pitts- 
burg  sank — went  straight  to  the  bottom  when  launched.  But  I 
do  not  pretend  to  official  evidence  in  these  things.  These  are  the 
rumors.  But  here  is  the  official  confession  of  the  failure,  which  is 
more  than  enough.  The  Secretary  tells  us,  "  It  was  ascertained, 
however,  when  the  first  two  approached  completion,  that  their 
draught  of  water  was  more  than  was  intended."  Had  the  weight 
of  water  changed,  or  the  weight  of  iron,  or  had  the  laws  of  arith 
metic  changed  ?  Was  the  calculation  proved  to  be  false  after  it 
was  made?  Or,  indeed,  was  there  any  calculation  ?  Did  Mr.  Fox 
sit  in  his  office,  and  when  a  man  came  in  with  the  model  of  a  mon 
itor  of  light  draught  and  heavy  cost,  ask  him,  How  much  water 
will  that  draw  ?  So  much.  Then  build  me  that  thing.  Is  that 
administration  in  time  of  war,  and  debt,  and  danger? 
The  report  says : 

"The  heavy  armor  and  the  two  eleven-inch  guns,  with  the  machinery  to  give 
them  proper  speed,  involved  the  necessity  of  enlarging  the  capacity  of  each  of  them." 

There  was  another  question  of  arithmetic,  and  of  the  twenty 
not  one  could  carry  their  machinery  or  their  guns.  Who  devised 
their  machinery?  I  suppose  the  head  of  the  engineering  depart 
ment.  Who  advised  the  form,  capacity,  or  weight  of  the  moni 
tors  ?  It  is  nobody,  or  Mr.  Fox. 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  495 

"When  making  these  necessary  alterations,  it  was  deemed  advisable,  under  ap 
plication  from  some  of  the  commanders  of  squadrons  for  boats  that  should  present 
but  a  small  rise  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  to  dispense  with  the  turrets  in  five 
of  these  light-draught  vessels,  with  a  view  to  special  operations.  The  remaining 
fifteen  we're  ordered  to  be  enlarged  by  raising  their  decks,  thereby  giving  them  ad 
ditional  tonnage  and  greater  draught,  and  making  them  more  efficient,  but  in  other 
respects  carrying  out  the  original  design.  This  work  is  now  being  performed,  and 
most  of  the  vessels  are  near  completion." 

So  the  Secretary  informs  us  that  he  dispensed  with  the  turrets 
upon  five  of  the  light-draught  vessels.  "Why?  Because,  with  the 
turrets,  they  were  not  light-draughts.  The  only  thing  in  which 
a  monitor  differs  from  an  iron  box  is  this  revolving  turret,  and 
when  the  turrets  were  taken  away  they  failed  to  be  monitors  at 
all.  Yet  the  monitor  price  was  paid,  with  a  large  addition  to 
cover  the  official  blunder.  The  remaining  fifteen  were  ordered  to 
be  enlarged  to  make  them  draw  less  water !  Their  decks  were 
raised  in  order  to  give  them  additional  tonnage — an  official  euphu 
ism,  in  which  raising  them  above  the  water  is  put  for  sinking 
them  deeper  in  the  water  to  get  them  to  float  at  all.  They  had 
too  much  draught  before,  and  they  would  not  float  unless  they 
had  more  cubic  contents  to  buoy  them  up!  The  Department 
wanted  light-draughts,  not  heavy-draughts.  Those  built  before 
were  too  heavy  to  get  into  shoal  waters.  The  Secretary  says  that 
in  all  other  respects  the  original  design  is  being  carried  out — they 
have  only  been  made  more  efficient.  But  the  original  design  was 
for  light-draught  monitors  and  nothing  else ;  yet  the  light-draught 
has  been  abandoned  on  all  for  heavier  draught,  which  excludes 
them  from  answering  the  original  design  wholly ;  and  on  five  the 
turret  is  gone — so  they  are  neither  monitors  nor  light-draughts ! 
What  part  of  the  original  design  remains  but  to  give  $7,000,000 
to  iron  contractors  to  be  invested  in  worthless  iron  ?  If  there 
was  any  consideration  on  that  subject,  if  any  advice  was  taken, 
the  officer  who  gave  it  ought  to  be  cashiered.  If  there  was  not 
any  consideration,  no  professional  advice  asked,  I  leave  it  to  the 
Naval  Committee  to  say  what  judgment  should  be  pronounced 
upon  the  Department. 

We  come  next  to  the  consideration  of  the  sea-going  iron-clads, 
because  even  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  will  not  allow  American 
genius  to  be  chained  to  our  own  coast.  For  that  purpose  we  are 
told  by  the  Department — I  beg  to  be  understood  that  I  am  using 
official  information,  obtained  from  official  documents,  and  noth- 


496  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

ing  else — we  are  told  by  the  Department  that  they  wanted  two 
swift  sea-going  iron-clads  that  should  be  able  to  cross  the  ocean 
and  dictate  the  law  abroad,  and  therefore  one  was  called  the  Dic 
tator  and  the  other  was  called  the  Puritan — a  singular  mingling 
of  the  religious  and  warlike  element,  I  suppose  in  memory  of  the 
great  Puritan  Dictator.  But  when  he  dictated,  it  was  to  kings  on 
the  field  of  battle ;  but  the  things  they  have  made  here,  and 
marked  with  the  names  of  power,  will  dictate  nowhere  except  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  The  two  were  to  cost  $2,300,000.  I 
think  the  Dictator  was  to  carry  two  guns  of  enormous  calibre, 
and  the  Puritan  four,  I  think.  Divide,  and  you  will  find  what 
each  gun  costs.  They  are  to  go  to  sea.  Sir,  the  Dictator  can  not 
carry  more  than  six  days'  supply  of  coal  with  her  armament,  am 
munition,  and  necessary  provisions  for  sea,  without  going  to  the 
bottom.  "  Swift  to  pursue  the  enemy !"  Why,  sir,  she  can  not 
go  over  six  miles  an  hour,  I  believe,  burning  fifty -four  tons  of 
coal  a  day  at  that ;  for  that,  I  am  told,  has  been  proved  by  the 
result  of  her  trip  from  New  York  to  Fortress  Monroe.  But  in 
this  matter  I  am  outside  of  the  record  and  official  information.  I 
make  this  statement  upon  what  I  suppose  good  authority ;  the 
log  of  the  Dictator  can  correct  it  if  erroneous.  She  started  from 
New  York  to  join  in  the  attack  on  Fort  Fisher.  I  have  not  offi 
cial  authority  for  saying,  but  I  think  it  will  not  be  controverted, 
that  she  did  not  go  there  because  her  machinery  broke  down  in 
going  from  New  York  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  I  understand  she 
is  detained  there  undergoing  repairs.  Then  that  is  not  a  sea-go 
ing  iron-clad,  nor  a  swift  iron-clad,  nor  one  available  for  offensive 
warfare.  However  destructive  she  may  be  if  the  enemy  consult 
her  convenience  by  taking  position  within  her  range,  yet  the 
swiftest  vessel  has  the  choice  of  field,  and  the  enemy  will  not  stay 
within  her  range  unless  it  is  to  close  on  and  board  her,  or  to  shut 
up  her  port-holes  by  rapid,  and  concentrated,  and  continuous  fire, 
which  will  prevent  her  using  the  enormous  shots  which  go  once 
in  s,even  or  eight  minutes,  or  crush  her  thin  decks  with  shot  as 
heavy  as  her  own. 

But  these  are  matters  for  navy  men  to  settle ;  all  that  is  now 
known  is  that  the  Dictator  is  as  useless  for  a  sea-going  vessel  of 
war  as  the  light-draught  monitors  are  to  go  in  shallow  water. 

A  moment  as  to  the  providence  with  which  the  contract  was 
made.  I  remember  to  have  heard — and  the  records  of  the  De- 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  497 

partment  will  correct  me  if  I  am  not  correctly  informed — there 
were  claims  made  for  extra  compensation  on  those  two  vessels,  and 
a  board  was  summoned,  consisting  of  officers  whose  names  I  will 
not  mention.  I  do  not  know  how  much,  but  perhaps  two  hund 
red  thousand  dollars  were  demanded.  The  board  declined  to 
recommend  it.  Another  board  was  summoned  of  more  pliant 
material,  and  they  recommended  the  allowance  not  only  of  what 
was  asked,  but  greatly  more ;  and,  if  I  am  not  misinformed — and 
here  again  the  Department  has  the  record — the  §ward  was  so 
much  beyond  what  was  asked  that  application  was  made,  formal 
or  informal,  to  withdraw  the  original  application ! 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  shrank  from  acting  under  the  ad 
vice  of  such  a  board.  The  claimants  then  came  here  to  Congress, 
and  Congress  at  its  last  session,  upon  the  motion  of  the  honorable 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Eice],  passed  a  resolution 
making  material  additions  to  the  compensation  awarded;  how 
nobody  knows.  The  result  has  been  that  the  Puritan  remains,  I 
believe,  upon  the  stocks,  uncompleted,  and  nobody  knows  when, 
if  ever,  she  will  be  completed.  The  Dictator  lies  with  her  ma 
chinery  broken  on  her  first  trip  from  New  York  to  Fortress 
Monroe. 

Such  is  the  investment  of  the  Department  in  sea-going  iron 
clads,  and  there  it  stops.  When  the  Dunderberg  comes  out  we 
shall  know  more  about  her ;  but  she  is  not  of  the  monitor  class. 
Her  engines  are  not  of  bureau  device,  but  by  the  builders ;  she 
will  bear  ten  guns,  and  may  be  a  powerful  floating  battery,  hard 
ly  any  thing  more.  We  are  without  a  single  sea-going  iron-clad 
capable  of  cruising,  the  Ironsides  alone  excepted. 

Now,  sir,  to  what  purpose  are  these  vessels  of  the  monitor  type 
adapted?  They  have  no  ram.  Their  engines  are  so  weak  that 
in  collision  they  can  do  no  harm.  Their  draught  is  eleven  and  a 
half  feet,  perhaps  twelve,  instead  of  ten.  They  have  no  sails; 
they  can  not  attack ;  they  can  not  escape  if  attacked ;  they  can 
not  batter  forts  with  any  success ;  they  have  never  yet  silenced  a 
sand-battery,  or  shaken  a  stone  of  a  casemated  fort,  any  where,  at 
any  time.  It  does  not  appear  that  in  the  course  of  a  year's  oper 
ations  before  Charleston,  any  impression  has  been  made  there 
upon  any  fortification  of  any  kind.  At  Fort  M'Allister,  the  rebel 
officers  mounted  the  ramparts  and  smoked  their  cigars  between 
the  shots.  They  can  not  stand  heavy  and  continuous  battering, 

Ii 


498  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

for,  though  the  turrets  be  not  pierced,  their  machinery  for  turning 
the  turret,  closing  the  ports,  and  working  the  guns,  is  so  delicate 
as  to  deprive  them  of  half  their  fire  by  constant  derangement ; 
and  if  a  line-of-battle  ship  has  half  her  guns  silenced,  it  is  sup 
posed  she  is  materially  damaged  in  the  conflict,  though  hull  and 
engine  survive.  Of  the  seven  monitors  that  went  into  action  in 
Charleston  Harbor,  four  of  them  were  partially  or  wholly  dis 
abled  in  forty  minutes.  That  is  a  proportion  of  loss  that  Trafal 
gar  did  not  sjjow. 

Safe  ?  Why,  sir,  their  liability  to  sink,  whether  from  a  torpedo 
or  the  storms  of  the  ocean,  when  going  down  the  coast,  is  more 
fatal  to  life  than  an  ordinary  general  action.  Four  of  them,  in 
cluding  the  original  Monitor  itself,  have  already  sunk,  out  of  the 
twenty  that  have  been  built  and  launched,  carrying  down  nearly 
all  the  crews.  The  Weehawken  went  down  in  perfectly  quiet 
water  in  Charleston  Harbor,  carrying  thirty  men  with  her ;  one 
nearly  sank  lying  at  the  "Washington  navy  yard;  the  original 
Monitor  went  down  on  its  way  to  Port  Koyal ;  the  Patapsco  was 
sunk  the  other  day  by  a  torpedo  in  Charleston  Harbor,  and  car 
ried  down  some  seventy  men,  it  is  said  ;  and  the  Tecumseh  sunk 
in  the  action  at  Mobile,  burying  Craven  and  all  but  three  or  four 
of  her  crew.  The  unpublished  health  reports  exhibit  disastrous 
and  unprecedented  results.  The  ratio  of  loss,  taking  the  liability 
to  sickness,  the  chances  of  sinking,  together  with  the  chances  of 
losses  in  action,  shows  that  they  were  not  safer,  and  are  less  ef 
fective  in  fight,  than  ordinary  wooden  vessels.  Every  body  will 
appreciate  the  remark  of  Admiral  Porter  when  he  intimates  that 
he  had  rather  stand  behind  his  wooden  walls  and  take  what  comes, 
than  be  confined  in  one  of  these  iron  coffins.  And  it  is  remark 
able  that  this  class  of  vessels  has  nowhere  received,  and  can  not 
now  get,  the  suffrage  of  any  respectable  proportion  of  the  Ameri 
can  navy  as  any  part  of  the  national  defense  at  all,  unless  it  be  be 
hind  obstructions  across  the  entrance  of  a  port  where  they  can 
not  be  reached;  and  casemated  batteries,  with  numerous  and 
equally  heavy  guns,  not  costing  §250,000  a  gun,  can  do  that  duty 
with  equal  effect.  And  any  one  who  will  read,  what  I  have  not 
now  time  to  read,  the  special  report  of  Admiral  Porter  on  these 
vessels  at  Fort  Fisher,  will  find  that,  while  he  complacently  deco 
rates  them  with  words  of  vague  eulogy,  yet  his  criticism  leaves 
them  nothing  of  peculiar  value,  and  his  consent  never  could  be 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  499 

gotten  to  build  another  monitor.  The  single  exception  is  the 
Monadnock,  whose  sailing  qualities  he  speaks  highly  of;  but  her 
engines  were  not  built  under  the  auspices  of  the  Navy  Depart 
ment,  and  she  is  not  a  monitor  at  all  in  point  of  fact.  He  did  not 
venture  to  put  the  ammunition  on  board  these  vessels  before  they 
started ;  he  did  not  venture  to  put  their  coal  on  board,  but  towed 
every  one  of  them  down  the  coast  to  Beaufort,  and  when  they  got 
there  their  ammunition  and  coal  were  placed  on  them  for  the 
first  time.  And  any  one  who  will  compare  the  results  in  Mobile 
Bay  with  the  results  at  Fort  Fisher  will  find  that  the  effective 
instruments  in  each  case  were  the  broadside  vessels,  with  their 
concentrated  and  rapid  fire,  covering  the  whole  field  of  battle  with 
their  shells,  rendering  it  untenable  to  any  one ;  while,  as  I  have 
already  mentioned,  when  the  monitors  alone  were  engaged  at 
Fort  M'Allister,  the  officers  did  not  hesitate  to  stand  upon  the 
ramparts  and  smoke  their  cigars  between  the  shots.  Admiral 
Farragut  is  entitled  to  be  heard  upon  the  question  of  naval  arma 
ment,  and  he  did  not  ascribe  any  decisive  influence  on  the  result 
at  Mobile,  one  of  the  great  days  of  our  republic,  to  our  iron-clads. 
He  did  not  think  that  the  monitors  defeated  the  enemy  in  that 
conflict,  the  most  serious  conflict  between  vessels  during  the  re 
bellion.  Hear  his  report : 

"Our  iron-clads,  from  their  slow  speed  and  bad  steering,  had  some  difficulty  in 
getting  into  and  maintaining  their  position  in  line  as  we  passed  the  fort,  and,  in  the 
subsequent  encounter  with  the  Tennessee,  from  the  same  causes  were  not  as  effective 
as  could  have  been  desired  ;  but  I  can  not  give  too  much  praise  to  Lieutenant  Com 
mander  Perkins,  who,  though  he  had  orders  from  the  Department  to  return  North, 
volunteered  to  take  command  of  the  Chickasaw,  and  did  his  duty  nobly. 

"The  "VVinnebago  was  commanded  by  Commander  T.  II.  Stevens,  who  volunteered 
for  that  position.  His  vessel  steers  very  badly,  and  neither  of  his  turrets  will  work, 
which  compelled  him  to  turn  his  vessel  every  time  to  get  a  shot,  so  that  he  could 
not  fire  very  often ;  but  he  did  the  best  under  the  circumstances. 

"  The  Manhattan  appeared  to  work  well,  though  she  moved  slowly.  Commander 
Nicholson  delivered  his  fire  deliberately,  and,  as  before  stated,  with  one  of  his  fif 
teen-inch  shots  broke  through  the  armor  of  the  Tennessee,  with  its  wooden  backing, 
though  the  shot  itself  did  not  enter  the  vessel.  No  other  shot  broke  through  the 
armor,  though  many  of  her  plates  were  started,  and  several  of  her  port  shutters 
jammed  by  the  fire  from  the  different  ships." 

That  is  not  my  judgment  nor  the  judgment  from  an  officer  at 
war  with  the  Department,  but  the  judgment  of  an  officer  whose 
name  in  history  will  rest  on  that  day.  It  is  not  magnanimous  to 
depreciate  the  merits  and  power  of  vessels  and  arms  which  did 


500  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

his  work,  and  he  could  not  have  penned  the  report  if  the  moni 
tors  were -the  dominant  power  in  the  battle.  He  was  on  board 
his  wooden  vessel,  with  his  other  wooden  vessels ;  their  rapid  and 
powerful  batteries  converging  on  the  Tennessee  from  every  quar 
ter  and  silencing  her  fire,  and  their  rapid  rush,  or,  as  a  gentleman 
very  appropriately  said,  the  mobbing  of  the  Tennessee  by  the 
wooden  vessels,  determined  the  contest,  and  not  the  slow,  unmov- 
ing,  helpless,  powerless  monitors  that  were  there  to  look  on  at  a 
battle  in  which  they  barely  participated.  The  same  thing  has 
been  experienced  elsewhere ;  but  I  quote  Admiral  Farragut  be 
cause  his  testimony  is  in  print,  and  because  there  can  be  no  ques 
tion  as  to  its  meaning;  because  every  body  knows  that  he  is  a 
naval  man,  and  one  who  would  make  use  of  every  means  placed 
in  his  hands,  and  fairly  distribute  the  merits  of  the  result. 

Again,  at  Fort  Fisher,  monitors  mingled  their  fire  with  the 
heavy  fire  of  broadside  vessels,  and  none  is  so  competent  to  speak 
of  the  value  of  the  monitor  as  Admiral  Porter.  He  says : 

"Compared  with  the  Ironsides,  their  fire  is  very  slow,  and  not  at  all  calculated 
to  silence  heavy  batteries,  which  requires  a  rapid  and  continuous  fire  to  drive  men 
from  their  guns ;  but  they  are  famous  coadjutors  in  fight — " 

Why,  certainly,  any  thing  will  help  upon  a  pinch, 

"  and  put  in  heavy  blows  which  tell  on  casemates  and  bomb-proofs." 

But  they  never  yet  destroyed  a  bomb-proof  or  tore  to  pieces, a 
casemate.  After  a  bombardment  of  two  days  at  Fort  Fisher, 
when  it  is  said  all  the  guns  were  dismounted,  and  the  work  torn 
to  pieces,  twenty -five  hundred  men  with  whole  skins  rose  from 
beneath  the  ruins  ready  to  dispute  the  possession  of  that  fort,  and 
held  it  during  five  hours  of  hand-to-hand  conflict  with  the  army 
led  by  the  heroic  Terry. 

If  that  were  all  the  effect  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  guns  of  the 
whole  fleet,  how  much  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  ten  guns  of  the 
monitors  ?  And  how  much  was  effected  by  the  first  bombard 
ment  of  two  or  three  days  with  the  same  enormous  force,  if  so 
soon  the  fort  was  ready  for  defense  ? 

But  Admiral  Porter  proceeds: 

"  The  smaller  class  of  monitors,  as  at  present  constructed,  will  always  require  the 
aid  of  a  steamer  to  tow  them  and  take  care  of  them.  In  smooth  water  they  ought 
to  go  along  by  themselves,  and  when  towed  the  tow-rope  should  never  be  less  than 
two  hundred  fathoms  in  length.  It  strains  them  very  much  to  have  a  short  tow- 
line." 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  501 

Then  he  thinks  them  worthless  as  sea  vessels,  incapable  of  in 
dependent  action  as  at  present  constructed — that  is,  as  monitors 
built  at  a  cost  of  $250,000  a  gun. 

He  proceeds : 

"I  do  not  know  yet  what  their  real  durability  is  or  would  be  in  a  continuous  fire 
against  their  turrets.  Solid  eleven-inch  or  two- hundred-pounder  rifles  are  apt  to 
break  something  when  they  strike,  and  I  should  be  much  better  satisfied  myself  to 
be  behind  wooden  bulwarks,  and  take  what  comes,  than  to  be  shut  up  in  an  iron 
turret,  not  knowing  whether  it  is  properly  constructed.  This,  though,  is  the  preju 
dice  of  an  old  sailor,  and  should  have  no  weight  whatever." 

So  he  thinks  not  much  more  of  their  defensive  than  of  their 
aggressive  qualities,  and  prefers  the  risk  with  the  power  of  broad 
side  vessels.  That  is  the  naval  opinion,  not  my  judgment,  upon 
the  monitors  at  Fort  Fisher. 

The  Monadnock,  a  turreted  vessel,  but  not  a  monitor,  alone  at 
tracted  Porter's  good  opinion : 

"As  to  the  Monadnock,  she  could  ride  out  a  gale  at  anchor  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
She  is  certainly  a  most  perfect  success  so  far  as  the  hull  and  machinery  are  con 
cerned,  and  is  only  defective  in  some  minor  details,  which,  in  the  building  of  these 
vessels,  require  the  superintendence  of  a  thorough  seaman,  and  a  practical  and  in 
genious  man.  The  Monadnock  is  capable  of  crossing  the  ocean  alone  (when  her 
compasses  are  once  adjusted  properly),  and  could  destroy  any  vessel  in  the  French 
or  British  navy,  lay  their  town  under  contribution,  and  return  again  (provided  she 
could  pick  up  coal)  without  fear  of  being  followed." 

But  her  speed  is  no  merit  of  the  Department,  for  her  engines 
were  not  on  their  plans.  If  she  could  work  such  wonders  abroad, 
why  not  try  her  on  Charleston  ?  And  the  coal  question  seems  to 
interpose  an  insuperable  barrier  to  transatlantic  exploits,  unless 
she  is  to  remain  there. 

The  admiral  turns  to  the  Ironsides : 

"I  have  never  yet  seen  a  vessel  that  comes  up  to  my  ideas  of  what  is  required  for 
effective  operations  as  much  as  the  Ironsides.  The  most  important  is  the  comfort 
with  which  the  people  on  board  of  her  live,  though  she  would  be  no  match  for  the 
Monadnock  in  a  fight,  the  latter  having  more  speed. 

"  The  accuracy  of  fire  is,  I  think,  in  favor  of  the  Ironsides,  judging  from  what  I 
have  seen  here.  The  turrets  get  filled  with  smoke,  and  do  not  clear  as  quick  as  the 
Ironsides,  though  that  defect  could  be  avoided  by  not  firing  both  guns  so  near  to 
gether." 

Yet  this  class  of  vessels,  of  which  the  Department  have,  I  be 
lieve,  but  one,  which  was  built  upon  the  recommendation  of  the 
original  commission,  has  not  been  multiplied.  They  propose  to 
build  no  more.  She  can  go  abroad ;  she  can  make  her  cannon 


502  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

heard  on  the  shores  of  Great  Britain ;  she  can  sail  as  well  as 
steam ;  and  she  can  carry  coal  enough  to  enable  her  to  steam  to 
any  extent  that  may  be  necessary  for  the  success  of  her  opera 
tions.  She  cost  only  $780,000,  just  $80,000  above  what  the  De 
partment  paid  for  a  single  engine  in  1863  ! ! 

Now,  sir,  it  is  material  to  observe  that  as  the  judgment  of  a 
navy  man  upon  this  iron-clad,  the  Ironsides.  It  was  one  built 
upon  the  advice  of  naval  men.  She  is  one  that  has  not  been  re 
peated.  She  is  the  one  that  has  not  been  accepted  by  the  De 
partment.  Why  ?  No  one  can  tell,  unless  it  be  that  the  Navy 
Department  had  gone  crazy  on  monitors,  and  was  so  deeply  en 
gaged  in  their  construction  that  no  money  or  thought  remained 
for  any  thing  else.  Can  any  one  doubt  but  that  others  of  the 
Ironsides  class  would  have  been  built  if  naval  men  had  been  con 
sulted? 

Now,  sir,  I  pass  from  that  to  the  other  question,  on  which  I  have 
something  to  say.  I  can  not  say  as  much  upon  this  as  I  desire. 
I  come  to  the  great  question  of  machinery ;  no  corruption  in  con 
tracts — nothing  of  the  kind — but  to  the  responsible  advice  on 
which  the  existing  machinery  of  the  navy  has  been  made  ;  sim 
ply  as  a  business  transaction,  treating  it  as  a  question  of  prudence 
and  common  sense  in  the  administration  of  the  government.  We 
have  twenty-three  screw  gunboats  of  the  Unadilla  class,  twelve 
double-enders  of  the  Miami  class,  ten  of  the  Juniata  class,  twenty- 
seven  double-enders  of  the  Utah  class,  and  one  or  two  other  ves 
sels  made  of  iron,  and  I  believe  likewise  of  the  double-ender  class, 
whose  machinery  was  built  on  the  plans  and  designs  of  the  Bu 
reau  of  Engineering,  as  the  head  of  the  bureau  tells  us  in  his  re 
port.  There  are  likewise  four  other  vessels  built  by  the  Depart 
ment,  the  Oneida,  the  Tuscarora,  Wachusett,  and  Kearsarge,  dupli 
cates  of  the  Iroquois,  the  Mohegan,  the  Wyoming,  and  the  Semi- 
nole.  Their  machinery  was  not  devised  by  the  Bureau  of  Steam 
Engineering,  but  was  copied  from  the  machinery  of  the  other  four 
vessels  of  which  they  were  duplicates,  and  on  principles  which  the 
Department  discarded  in  the  machinery  designed  by  the  bureau, 
and  placed  in  the  vessels  of  the  four  classes  above  mentioned. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1862,  as  the  screw  sloops  of  the  Juniata 
class  and  the  paddle-wheel  double-enders  were  being  completed 
and  put  afloat,  a  serious  question  arose  as  to  the  efficiency  and 
durability  of  machinery.  The  Department  summoned  a  board  of 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  503 

the  first  engineers  of  the  United  States  to  take  their  opinion  on 
what  the  Department  had  done  without  the  advice  of  any  body. 
That  board  was  requested  to  convene  and  investigate  the  machin 
ery  of  the  screw  steamers  of  the  Juniata,  Monongahela,  and  Lack- 
awana  class,  and  of  the  paddle-wheel  steamers  then  building,  and 
report  to  the  Department  upon  a  series  of  questions.  That  report 
was  made,  printed,  and  a  copy  of  it  has  been  handed  to  me.  ISTow 
the  first  thing  to  be  observed  is,  that  on  page  69  of  that  report, 
this  commission  of  civil  engineers,  summoned  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  to  judge  his  machinery,  say  the  ability  to  propel  naval 
vessels  of  proper  model  at  a  high  rate  of  speed  is  an  essential 
point  in  designing  the  machinery,  and  not  less  than  twelve  knots 
per  hour  for  screw  vessels  should  be  attainable  on  emergencies, 
under  favorable  circumstances  AT  SEA.  They  then  proceed  to 
give  their  opinion  upon  the  machinery.  I  will  read  for  the  in 
struction  of  the  committee  a  few  passages  to  show  how  great  was 
the  divergency  of  judgment  between  the  engineers  selected  by 
the  Department  and  the  engineer  officers  who  constructed  the 
machinery,  at  a  cost  of  $12,000,000,  which  now  renders  our  naval 
vessels  the  laughing-stock  of  every  blockade-runner.  It  says : 

' '  Interrogatories. 

"1.  On  the  valve  gear,  whether  it  admits  of  using  the  steam  with  such  degree 
of  expansion,  or  is  usual  or  desirable  with  marine  engines  for  the  naval  service,  and 
whether  it  is  a  proper  one  for  scre\v  and  paddle-wheel  engines,  as  the  case  may  be  ? 

"In  reply  to  the  first  interrogatory,  we  separate  our  opinion  in  relation  to  the 
screw  and  paddle-wheel  engines.  For  the  screw  engines  it  is  considered  by  the 
board  (with  the  exception  of  two  members  named  hereafter)  that  the  principle 
adopted  in  admitting  and  exhausting  steam  by  one  side-wheel  valve,  actuated  bv 
the  link  motion,  though  not  deemed  the  best  in  all  cases,  is,  all  things  considered, 
proper  in  the  present  case,  combining  simplicity  of  construction  with  such  a  range 
of  expansion  as  is  usual  or  desirable  in  the  naval  service.  But  the  use  of  very  large 
steam  ports,  so  much  in  the  excess  of  the  proportion  adopted  by  the  best  builders, 
while,  by  permitting  a  free  exhaust,  it  may  afford  a  slight  advantage,  has  involved 
a  serious  loss  of  steam,  in  our  opinion  overbalancing  such  an  advantage.  It  has 
also  entailed  all  the  evils  of  great  travel  of  valve,  namely,  difficulty  of  reversing, 
increased  friction  and  wear,  and  a  system  of  gear  to  work  it  of  excessive  size, 
weight,  and  cost,  both  in  construction  and  maintenance. 

"  For  the  paddle-wheel  steamers,  it  is  believed  that,  although  it  would  have  been 
better  to  have  adopted  a  form  of  valve  gear,  having  an  arrangement  for  adjusting 
while  in  motion,  yet  that  the  principle  adopted  must  be  considered  a  proper  one  for 
the  purpose,  since  the  admitting  and  exhausting  of  the  steam  are  accomplished  by 
different  valves  and  different  movements,  which  in  the  use  of  slowly  reciprocating 


504  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

engines  for  marine  purposes  is  very  desirable.  It  is  also  believed  that  little  if  any 
loss  of  fuel  will  result  from  controlling  the  engine  by  the  throttle  in  those  cases  of 
emergency  when  it  is  ordinarily  deemed  proper  to  quickly  alter  the  rate  of  expan 
sion.  We  are,  however,  compelled  to  object  in  this  case,  as  in  the  other,  to  the 
great  and  unnecessary  size  of  ports  used,  much  in  excess  of  that  which,  in  our  judg 
ment,  is  requisite,  entailing,  as  it  does,  a  great  loss  of  steam  as  well  as  additional 
expense  of  construction." 

"2.  On  the  boilers,  whether  they  are  superior,  equal,  or  inferior  to  others  in  use 
in  compactness,  durability,  efficiency,  and  proper  adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  the 
naval  service  ?  *  *  *  *  * 

"  1.  In  regard  to  compactness,  to  obtain  an  equal  amount  of  evaporation  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  the  boiler  used  in  the  steamers  under  consideration  is  infe 
rior  to  the  horizontal  tubular  boiler,  requiring  about  ten  per  cent,  more  cubular 
space.  2.  In  regard  to  durability.  We  regard  the  boiler  used  in  these  steamers 
as  equal  in  this  respect  to  the  horizontal  tubular  boiler,  proper  care  and  attention 
being  bestowed  in  each  case.  3.  In  regard  to  efficiency,  including  economical  ef 
fect  and  evaporative  power,  with  natural  draught.  In  the  former  particular,  econ 
omy,  taking  all  the  conditions  of  the  use  of  the  naval  boilers  into  consideration,  we 
think  the  vertical  tubular  boiler  used  in  these  steamers  is  equal  to  the  horizontal 
tubular.  A  farther  note  on  this  subject,  by  five  of  the  members,  will  be  found  in  a 
subsequent  part  of  the  report.  As  to  the  second  particular,  namely,  evaporative 
power  under  natural  draught,  irrespective  of  economical  effect,  the  vertical  tubular 
is  inferior  to  the  horizontal  tubular  boiler,  requiring  one  third  more  cubical  con 
tents  to  produce  the  same  amount  of  steam.  4.  In  regard  to  accessibility  for  clean 
ing  and  repair.  In  this  respect,  taking  into  consideration  the  liability  to  derange 
ment  from  carelessness,  and  the  facilities  for  cleaning  fire  and  water  spaces,  and  for 
effective  repairs,  both  at  sea  and  in  port,  we  consider  the  vertical  water  tube  boiler 
in  use  in  these  steamers  as,  upon  the  whole,  inferior  to  the  horizontal  tubular  boiler. 
5.  Power  of  producing  large  evaporation  with  least  sacrifice  of  economical  effect  by 
artificial  means.  In  this  respect  we  consider  the  vertical  tubular  as  inferior  to  the 
horizontal  tubular  boiler.  The  former  is  in  this  respect  open  to  serious  objections. 
It  requires  the  use  of  artificial  means  to  produce  an  evaporation  which  is  ordinarily 
obtained  with  ease  in  the  horizontal  tubular  ;  and  when  these  means  are  employed 
for  any  length  of  time,  the  flue  spaces  become  clogged. 

"We  reply,  therefore,  to  your  second  interrogatory,  that,  on  the  whole,  we  are 
compelled  to  consider  the  type  of  boiler  used  in  these  steamers  as  inferior  to  the 
horizontal  tubular  boiler  which  is  generally  used  by  other  nations,  and  by  this  coun 
try  in  the  mercantile  marine." 

*******  *** 

"4.  On  the  general  design  and  arrangement  of  the  machinery  in  the  different 
cases,  and  whether,  on  the  whole,  all  the  conditions  of  the  naval  service  being  duly 
considered,  there  is  any  other  arrangement  in  use  that  would  give  superior  results  ? 

"In  reply  to  this  interrogatory  we  have  to  report  that  the  general  design  and  ar 
rangement  of  machinery  for  the  screw  steamers  is  inferior  to  that  of  other  types  in 
the  following  particulars:  1.  Compactness.  It  occupies  more  cubical  space  than 
either  the  ordinary  back-acting  engine  (this  phrase  objected  to  by  Mr.  Everett),  or 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  505 

the  direct-acting  engine,  either  of  which,  with  the  same  stroke,  could  have  been 
gotten  into  these  vessels.  2.  Liability  to  derangement.  It  is  -more  liable  to  de 
rangement  than  either  of  those  types,  owing  to  the  great  number  and  weight  of  the 
moving  parts,  and  comparative  inaccessibility  of  some  of  them.  3.  In  reference  to 
economy  of  fuel.  The  consumption  of  steam  as  applied  to  the  propulsion  of  the 
vessel  must  be  proportionally  greater  in  these  engines  than  in  those  of  ordinary  pro 
portions,  owing  to  the  excessive  weight  of  the  reciprocating  parts  to  be  put  in  mo 
tion  at  each  alternation  of  movement,  involving  additional  friction,  and  also  the 
employment  of  such  large  steam  ports,  involving  loss  of  steam  even  after  allowing 
for  the  gain  by  free  exhaust  so  obtained,  as  well  as  the  expenditure  of  power  due  to 
great  travel  and  friction  of  the  valves.  4.  Owing  to  the  peculiar  arrangement  of 
the  smaller  pumps  and  of  the  valve  gearing,  they  are  more  inaccessible  for  care  and 
adjustment  when  in  motion  and  for  repairs  either  at  sea  or  in  port.  Taking  all 
these  points  into  consideration,  we  believe,  first,  that  the  direct-acting  engine  pre 
sents  the  greater  number  and  amount  of  advantages  for  marine  service  in  the  navy, 
and  can  state  that  the  space  allotted  for  the  machinery  in  these  vessels  would  have 
permitted  the  introduction  of  the  direct-acting  engine  in  place  of  that  adopted, 
having  the  same  stroke  of  piston,  a  sufficient  length  of  connecting-rod,  and  ample 
surface  in  the  journals  to  bear  the  same  maximum  strain  brought  upon  the  recipro 
cating  parts  without  sacrificing  any  of  the  essential  elements  of  a  successful  per 
formance  ;  second,  that  the  saving  of  cubic  contents  occupied  in  the  vessel,  due 
to  such  change  of  type,  would  have  been  not  less  than  twenty  per  cent. ;  and, 
third,  that  the  employment  of  the  proportions  used  by  the  best  practice  for  the  va 
rious  parts  of  these  engines  would  have  resulted  in  a  saving  of  weight  amounting 
to  not  less  than  sixty  tons,  involving  reduced  cost,  other  conditions  being  the  same. 

"With  regard  to  the  paddle-wheel  engines,  we  consider  the  general  plan  adopted 
as  not  open  to  serious  objection,  inasmuch  as  the  space  to  be  occupied  in  these  ves 
sels  is  of  secondary  importance.  It  affords  the  necessary  accessibility  for  care  and 
adjustment  during  operation,  and  for  repairs  at  all  times.  It  is  not  peculiarly  liable 
to  derangement,  and  has  superabundant  journal  service.  We  object,  however,  to 
the  weight  of  some  of  the  parts  of  the  engine  proper,  which,  judged  by  the  propor 
tions  used  in  the  best  practice,  is  excessive.  This  objection  applies  especially  to  the 
first  paddle-wheel  boats.  In  both  classes,  however,  it  is  believed  to  be  of  importance, 
as  involving  additional  displacement  to  carry  it  and  increased  cost  of  construction. 
We  object  also  to  the  large  proportions  of  the  condensing  apparatus  (except  the 
condensers  proper  in  the  second  class  of  engines)  as  being  in  our  opinion  unneces 
sary,  and  to  the  size  of  steam  ports,  valves,  etc.,  about  double  that  of  the  best  prac 
tice  hitherto,  on  account  of  the  loss  of  steam  caused  thereby.  The  overhanging 
wheels  and  their  constructions  are  approved.  We  approve  also  of  the  adoption  of 
single  engines  for  vessels  of  this  class." 

"  5.  Whether,  had  the  drawings  and  specifications  of  this  machinery  been  sub 
mitted  to  you  before  their  construction,  you  would  have  objected  to  any  thing  in  it 
as  likely  to  render  its -performance  in  any  way  inferior  to  other  machinery  in  use  for 
the  same  purpose  and  under  the  same  considerations  ? 

"  We  should  have  objected  to  many  of  the  points  of  arrangement  and  details  in 
these  plans  and  specifications,  as  giving  results  inferior  to  what  might,  in  our  opin 
ion,  have  been  obtained  had  changes  been  made  in  them." 


506  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

"6.  You  will  please  also  give,  in  the  event  of  your  disapproving  of  all  or  any 
part  of  the  machinery,  the  reasons  therefor,  and  state  what,  in  your  opinion,  it 
should  have  been. 

"  In  compliance  with  this  request,  we  have  to  state  that  we  should  have  placed 
more  power,  both  of  engines  and  boilers,  in  the  screw  steamers,  recognizing  the  great 
importance  to  naval  steamers  of  having  the  capability  to  maintain  continuously  a 
high  rate  of  speed  when  desired  ;  and  believe  that  in  both  respects  the  power 
could  have  been  proportionately  increased  by  a  change  in  type  and  detail — as  in 
dicated  in  previous  replies — to  the  extent  of  at  least  one  third  more,  without  add 
ing  to  the  space  occupied  by  the  whole,  reducing  the  coal  space,  or  equaling  the  to 
tal  weight. 

"By  such  a  change,  obtained  without  sacrifice  of  room  or  displacement,  a  higher 
rate  of  speed  would  have  been  attainable  ;  while  in  ordinary  cruising,  both  engines 
and  boilers  could  have  been  worked  at  a  less  pressure  of  steam,  and  managed  in  a 
manner  most  conducive  to  economy  of  fuel  and  their  greater  durability. 

"We  should  have  objected  to  certain  points  of  detail  and  proportion,  as  indi 
cated  in  our  replies  to  previous  interrogatories.  A  farther  objection  and  proposed 
change  is  submitted  by  four  members  of  the  board  in  a  subsequent  part  of  this  re- 
port.  ********* 

"Objections  to  answer  the  first  interrogatory  by  Messrs.  Coryell  and  Wright, 
who  object  to  so  much  of  the  foregoing  answer  as  relates  to  the  principle  adopted 
for  the  valve  gear  used  in  the  Juniata  class  of  engines,  for  the  reason  that  it  will 
not  allow  of  the  proper  motion  of  the  steam  valve  for  an  engine  working  expansive 
ly,  in  combination  with  a  proper  opening  of  ports  for  the  exhaust. ;  in  other  words, 
all  engines  should  have  a  separate  valve  and  motion  for  working  steam  expansively. 
The  type  of  valve  motion  used  on  the  Iroquois,  Wachusett,  and  vessels  of  that  class, 
though  not  combining  every  thing  desired  for  an  efficient  expansive  gear,  is  in  every 
respect  superior  to  that  in  use  in  the  Juniata  class  of  engines."  *  *  * 

"Addition  to  answer  to  sixth  interrogatory  by  Messrs.  Hibbavd,  Wright,  Loring, 
and  Coryell,  who  add  to  the  foregoing  answer  by  stating  that  they  regard  the  diam 
eter  of  the  cylinders  of  the  Juniata  class  of  engines  as  too  small  to  develop  in  the 
most  economical  manner  the  power  of  the  steam  that  can  be  generated  by  the  boil 
ers,  as  they  require  the  steam  to  be  admitted  at  a  pressure  of  thirty  to  thirty-five 
pounds  per  square  inch  above  the  atmosphere  for  about  three  fourths  of  the  stroke, 
to  develop  their  ordinary  full  working  power.  With  large  cylinders,  fifty-four  inches 
in  diameter,  cutting  off  the  steam  at  about  three  eighths  the  stroke,  and  using  the 
same  pressure  and  volume  of  steam,  would,  in  their  opinion,  develop  more  power 
from  it,  and  at  the  same  time,  by  cutting  off  a  larger  point,  enable  the  engines  to 
work  for  a  limited  time  with  a  large  excess  of  power  in  an  emergency,  or  at  full 
power  with  a  lower  pressure  of  steam,  as  would  be  very  desirable  in  case  the  boilers 
were  weakened  by  wear  or  other  causes,  or  if  the  pressure  of  the  steam  became  ac 
cidentally  lower,  or  if  from  leaking  or  other  derangement  of  the  fresh-water  con 
denser  it  became  necessary  to  work  the  boilers  with  salt  water,  and  that  such  in 
creased  size  of  the  cylinders  would  not  materially  increase  the  cubic  space  occupied. 
The  size  of  cylinders  used  do  not  in  our  opinion  permit  the  best  rate  of  expansion 
that  the  valve  gear  will  give,  except  at  a  low  rate  of  speed  of  the  vessels." 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  507 

The  Board  make  this  important  statement  on  page  97 : 

"It  is  true  that  the  best  screw  vessels  in  the  navy  for  speed  and  efficiency  are 
provided  with  an  independent  cut- off  apparatus;  but  this  superiority  is  not  necessa 
rily  due  to  the  use  of  an  independent  cut-off.  We  believe  there  are  no  vessels  built 
for  the  Navy  before  the  date  mentioned  [1861]  without  an  independent  cut-off." 

Then  we  have  on  page  127  of  the  supplemental  report  this  re 
mark  of  the  Board : 

"We  did  not,  for  example,  in  our  report  allude  to  one  disadvantage  of  the  form 
of  boiler  now  used  in  the  naval  service,  although  it  was  fully  discussed,  namely,  the 
impossibility  in  the  gunboats  or  sloops,  of  reducing  its  height  so  that  the  crown  of 
the  boiler  can  be  below  the  main  load  water-line  of  the  vessel.  This  can  be  done 
by  other  forms  of  multitubular  boiler,  either  horizontal  or  vertical,  while  the  ordi 
nary  horizontal  tubular  somewhat  occupies  less  height,  when  properly  designed,  to 
give  the  same  effect." 

Now,  the  effect  of  having  the  steam  machinery  exposed  in  ac 
tion  was  disastrously  illustrated  when  the  Sassacus  was  exploded 
in  Albemarle  Sound,  and  the  Hatteras  disabled  by  the  Alabama 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  by  a  single  shot  passing  through  a  portion 
of  their  steam  machinery. 

And  then  we  have  another  significant  fact  on  this  point  in  the 
remark  they  make,  that  the  engines  differ  from  those  of  the  best 
practical  engineers.  They  were  mere  innovations.  However  they 
may  be  justified  hereafter,  they  were  against  the  opinion  of  the 
profession  when  adopted,  and  against  the  experience  of  the  best 
vessels  in  the  United  States  service  as  the  commission  of  engineers 
report,  and  they  are  different  from  these  vessels  which  now  make 
the  best  time  at  sea  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the  applica 
tion  of  machinery  to  the  propulsion  of  vessels.  They  were  mere 
innovations — ideas  that  came  across  the  head  of  the  chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering;  and  fliey,  engines  and  boilers, 
stand  condemned  by  this  commission,  which  was  summoned  by 
the  Department  to  pass  its  judgment  upon  them. 

On  one  innovation,  made  without  experiment  or  any  proposed 
advantage,  the  Board  speak  as  follows: 

"Both  in  the  naval  and  merchant  marine  large  sums  of  money  have  been  ex 
pended  in  constructing  elaborate  machinery,  especially  required  to  accomplish  long 
ranges  of  expansion,  On  the  other  hand,  during  the  past  two  years,  some  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  vessels  (mostly  in  the  navy)  have  been  provided  with  machinery  con 
structed  on  a  different  theory,  namely,  that  it  was  more  economical  to  make  the 
steam  cylinders  of  such  dimensions  that  a  small  range  of  expansion  could  be  used. 

"We  respectfully  submit  that  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  of  which  of  these  systems 
is  the  most  economical  would  be  productive  of  so  great  a  moneyed  economy  to  the 


508  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

government  that  we  can  not  but  earnestly  recommend  that  you  will  authorize  the 
necessary  experiments  to  determine  this  question,  particularly  as  an  expenditure  not 
to  exceed  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  dollars  only  would  be  required,  which,  in 
comparison  to  the  importance  of  the  subject,  is  insignificant." 

Then  the  Board  advised  experiments  to  test  the  relative  values 
of  the  horizontal  and  vertical  tubular  boilers,  chiefly  out  of  defer 
ence  to  the  Department's  partiality  for  the  latter,  which  they  had 
condemned  in  the  form  used  by  the  Bureau  of  Engineering.  This 
report  was  made  in  February  or  March,  1863,  and  it  condemned 
every  thing  that  had  been  done  at  that  time,  every  engine  that 
had  then  been  placed  by  the  Department  in  a  naval  vessel.  We 
are  told  that  these  investigations  are  now  going  on,  in  the  report 
of  the  Secretary  to  this  session.  The  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineer 
ing  informs  us  that  now — that  is  to  say  in  December,  1864,  when 
the  report  came  in,  commissions  were  sitting  to  determine  those 
two  problems  proposed  for  solution  in  February,  1863,  and  were 
carrying  on  their  investigations  in  November  and  December,  1864, 
to  advise  the  Department  what  course  it  should  pursue  in  creating 
new  engines. 

Now,  what  has  been  the  course  of  the  Department  while  that 
investigation  was  going  on  ?  Why,  sir,  I  hold  here  a  report  of 
the  chief  of  the  Engineer  Bureau  of  the  28th  of  November,  1864, 
which,  after  eulogizing  the  form  of  boiler  which  that  Board  of 
Engineers  condemned,  and  giving  us  his  assurance  that  his  sub 
sequent  experiments  quite  justify  his  opinion,  condemned  by  the 
Board  of  Engineers,  informs  us  that,  on  the  28th  of  November, 
1864, 

"A  Board,  consisting  of  the  principal  steam-engine  builders  of  the  country  and 
the  chief  of  this  bureau,  is  now  experimenting  with  critical  accuracy  on  two  boilers 
of  the  respective  types  for  the  purpose  of  definitely  determining  their  relative  merits 
for  the  naval  service  under  every  variety  of  circumstance  and  of  proportion.  It  is 
believed  the  results  will  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  all  engaged  in  the  manu 
facture  and  use  of  steam  machinery. 

"  Another  Board,  consisting  of  three  members  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  three  of 
the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  three  on  the  part  of  the  Department,  are  now  exper 
imenting  with  the  utmost  precision  on  machinery  devised  by  Mr.  Horatio  Allen,  of 
the  Novelty  Iron  Works,  New  York  city,  one  of  the  Board,  to  determine  by  practical 
results  the  economy  of  using  steam  with  different  measures  of  expansion,  under  dif 
ferent  conditions  of  mechanism,  pressure,  and  back  pressure.  It  is  believed  these 
experiments  will  give  a  correct  practical  solution  to  a  very  vexed  problem,  and  be 
of  incalculable  benefit." 

That  is  to  say,  experiments  of  vital  moment  proposed  in  Feb- 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  509 

ruary,  1863,  to  guide  the  Department  in  the  expenditure  of  mil 
lions,  and  to  determine  the  value  of  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
navy,  have  been  cleverly  protracted  from  February,  1863,  till 
November,  1864,  that  is,  during  twenty-one  months,  nearly  two 
years  ;  and  while  this  was  going  on,  we  are  informed  that  the  De 
partment  has  solved  those  problems  in  its  own  sense  ;  and  in  the 
face  of  this  report  of  the  Board  of  Engineers,  and  its  judgment 
upon  the  machinery  of  the  Bureau,  it  has  ordered  machinery  of 
its  own  condemned  types  to  the  amount  of  millions  of  money,  for 
I  can  not  tell  how  many  vessels  !  The  statement  of  contracts  for 
steam  machinery  made  by  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering  since 
the  1st  of  August,  1863,  that  is,  six  months  after  the  report  of  the 
Board  of  Engineers,  shows  contracts  for  twenty-one  engines  at 
$400,000  each,  four  at  $580,000  each,  two  at  $600,000,  and  two 
at  $700,000  each,  amounting  to  about  twelve  millions  of  dollars ; 
all  after  August,  1863  ;  all  after  the  condemnation  by  the  Board 
of  Engineers;  all  pending  the  experiments  which  were  to  determ 
ine  their  structure  1  In  what  year  the  last  were  ordered  is  per 
haps  not  quite  certain,  for  the  dates  are  not  very  distinctly  set 
forth  ;  but  all  seem  to  be  in  1863. 

What  I  ask  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  is  the  fact  that  a 
Board  of  Engineers,  summoned  by  the  Department,  condemned  all 
the  machinery  the  Department  had  -placed  in  any  wooden  vessel 
up  to  the  date  of  its  sessions,  and  that  the  Department,  instead  of 
changing  its  course,  goes  on  and  constructs  machinery  upon  iden 
tically  the  same  principle,  as  the  Bureau  of  Engineers  informs  us. 
I  speak  now  upon  the  report ;  and  then,  as  if  to  add  mockery  to 
this  abuse  of  the  public  confidence,  they  tell  us  that  now,  after  the 
time  which  has  elapsed  between  February  and  March,  1863,  and 
November,  1864,  they  are  diligently  pursuing  investigations  to 
settle  questions  which  they  have  practically  solved  by  the  expend 
iture  of  millions  of  dollars  upon  work  which  has  been  condemned 
by  a  Board  authorized  by  the  Department  itself  more  than  a  year 
ago,  and  pending  experiments  intended  to  determine  some  of  the 
most  vital  points  of  the  machinery !  If  that  is  wise  action,  then 
let  others  explain  it.  If  there  are  differences  of  opinion  so  grave 
as  that,  then  it  is  time  to  stop  until  the  problem  is  solved,  and  not 
say  that,  after  having  built  a  whole  navy  at  such  stupendous  sac 
rifice  of  money,  they  are  now  diligently  pursuing  investigations 
for  the  purpose  of  solving  a  problem  which  they  have  practically 


510  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

solved  by  this  great  expenditure.  That  is  a  trifling  with  the 
country  which  should  bring  down  upon  them  the  indignation  of 
this  House.  And  if  no  other  fact  existed,  that  should  be  a  suffi 
cient  reason  to  surround  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department  with 
responsible  advisers,  whose  opinions  he  can  not  disregard,  whose 
opinions  he  can  not  push  away  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  Depart 
ment,  as  he  did  those  of  the  Board  of  Engineers,  where  they  may 
lay  until  they  were  brought  out  after  weeks  of  investigation  by 
our  committees,  but  who  would  command  respect  from  the  head 
of  the  Department,  or  bring  down  condign  punishment  upon  his 
head  if  neglected.  It  is  to  prevent  such  an  abuse  of  the  public 
confidence  as  is  shown  by  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Engineers  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  report  of  the  Engineer  Bureau  on  the  other, 
that  I  have  drawn  the  proposition  I  have  offered ;  and  in  drawing 
it  I  have  embodied  in  it  as  nearly  as  I  could,  and  as  the  system  of 
our  government  would  allow,  the  provisions  which  have,  by  the 
experience  of  other  countries  and  our  own,  from  time  to  time  been 
found  useful  to  guide  and  aid  the  discretion  of  the  Secretary  when 
novel  ships  or  great  expenditures  on  new  forms  of  naval  defense 
were  about  to  be  hazarded,  and  to  prevent  this  great  squandering 
of  the  public  money.  In  my  judgment  it  will  be  a  guarantee 
of  an  efficiency  of  service  hereafter  such  as  we  have  never  had 
heretofore. 

I  have  already  detained  the  House  longer  than  I  intended.  I 
merely  wish  to  say  now  that,  so  far  as  I  can  get  information  from 
any  source  whatever,  the  speed  of  the  engines  placed  in  the  naval 
vessels  constructed  by  the  Department  on  its  type  up  to  this  time 
falls  three  miles  short  of  what  they  ought  to  have  attained  accord 
ing  to  the  Board  of  Engineers.  A  defender  of  the  navy  has  fur 
nished  a  striking  proof  of  this  great  failure.  When  the  question 
was  raised  upon  that  subject  in  the  newspapers  some  time  ago, 
the  statement  that  the  screw  sloops  of  the  Department  could  not 
exceed  between  nine  and  ten  knots  drew  out  a  reply  from  a  dis 
tinguished  officer  in  the  navy,  who  said  that  it  was  very  far  from 
being  true  that  none  of  the  vessels  of  the  navy  could  go  more 
than  nine  or  ten  miles  an  hour  under  steam  continuously,  under 
the  conditions  of  the  naval  service — not  running  down  the  Poto 
mac  without  armament,  or  coal,  or  ammunition,  or  water,  or  pro 
visions,  and  in  smooth  water,  but  at  sea.  It  is  the  only  direct,  au 
thentic  published  statement  that  I  have  ever  seen  from  any  naval 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  oil 

officer  respecting  the  speed  of  any  of  the  vessels  of  the  United 
States  built  by  the  present  Department  which  carried  their  speed 
above  ten  miles  an  hour.  But  the  contradiction  is  solved  by  not 
ing  the  names  of  the  vessels  forming  the  exceptions.  Captain 
Craven,  the  heroic  officer  who  went  down  with  the  monitor  Te- 
cumseh  in  Mobile  Bay,  is  the  officer  referred  to,  and  his  card,  in 
answer  to  the  suggestion  that  none  of  the  Department  vessels 
would  go  more  than  ten  knots  an  hour  under  naval  conditions, 
stated  that  he  had  commanded  both  the  Kearsarge  and  the  Tus- 
carora,  and  that  they  could  go  thirteen  knots  an  hour.  But  the 
Kearsarge  and  the  Tuscarora  are  not  provided  with  machinery  built, 
ly  the  Department  or  the  Bureau  of  Engineering,  but  they  are  two 
vessels  of  war  which  were  duplicates  in  structure  and  machinery 
of  the  Iroquois,  the  Mohican,  and  the  Seminole,  vessels  construct 
ed  by  the  last  administration,  whose  engines  are  constructed  on  the 
principle  that  the  new  Bureau  of  Engineering  has  condemned — prin 
ciples  which  it  has  discarded  in  the  construction  of  the  new  en 
gines,  but  which  prevailed  in  the  structure  of  the  old  vessels  of 
the  United  States  Navy,  and  of  the  vessels  constructed  in  navies 
abroad.  And  I  say  that  this  is  evidence  in  corroboration  of  the 
fact  that  none  of  the  vessels  whose  machinery  is  devised  by  the 
Bureau  can  approach  the  speed  which  it  is  said  by  the  Board  of 
Engineers  ought  to  be  attained,  and  can  be  attained,  with  proper 
machinery,  under  naval  conditions  for  naval  vessels.  The  num 
ber  of  revolutions  of  the  screw,  not  exceeding  sixty  or  sixty-two 
a  minute,  and  the  pitch  of  the  screw,  limit  the  speed  of  the  screw 
sloops  to  less  than  ten  knots  an  hour,  unless  a  vessel  can  go  faster 
than  her  propeller;  and  that  such  is  the  limit  appears  officially 
by  the  report  that  the  Monongahela,  in  rushing  full  speed  against 
the  Tennessee,  made  sixty-two  revolutions,  manifestly  the  utmost 
limit  of  her  power ;  and  that  they  are  under  twelve  knots  an 
hour  is  implied  by  the  Board  of  Engineers  assigning  that  as  the 
desirable  limit,  while  they  condemn  the  machinery,  and  say  it 
might,  by  change  in  type  and  detail,  have  in  the  screw  steamers 
been  increased  in  power  to  the  extent  of  one  third.  It  is  plain 
they  thought  the  speed  of  the  sloop  not  over  nine  knots.  The  im 
punity  of  the  Alabama  and  her  consorts  for  three  years  is  the 
practical  result ;  while  the  official  report  adds  to  the  confirmation 
by  showing  that  of  ninety  steamers  captured  during  the  year,  not 
over  five  or  six  were  taken  by  vessels  built  on  the  Department 
plans. 


512          ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

Now,  sir,  without  going  farther  into  detail  upon  this  subject,  for 
I  desire  to  stop  where  official  data  stop,  I  submit  that  the  course 
of  the  Department  with  reference  to  the  iron-clads,  and  its  course 
with  reference  to  the  construction  of  machinery,  all  other  matters 
being  laid  aside,  show  the  necessity  of  some  supervising  board, 
some  advisory  power  beyond  authority  which  is  at  the  head  of 
the  Wavy  Department,  and  to  secure  to  the  nation  the.  benefit  of 
the  money  that  it  is  now  expending  in  the  structure  of  vessels. 
We  have  spent  already,  sir,  over  $280,000,000  on  our  navy,  and 
yet  at  this  day  there  has  been  accomplished  scarcely  any  thing 
which  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  nation,  or  which  materially 
adds  to  its  security.  I  trust,  sir,  that  by  the  adoption  of  this 
amendment  a  security  will  be  provided  for  the  future,  for  noth 
ing  can  remedy  the  squandering  of  the  past. 

Messrs.  Rice,  Pike,  and  Griswold,  of  the  Committee,  and  Mr.  Blow, 
having  opposed  the  amendment,  Mr.  Davis  said  on  the  6th  of  February, 

ME.  CHAIRMAN, — Had  the  gentlemen  of  the  Naval  Committee 
treated  the  proposition  I  had  the  honor  to  present  with  ordinary 
fairness,  or  exhibited  in  the  course  of  their  discussion  of  it  that 
they  had  read  the  bill  and  amendment  which  they  rejected,  and 
understood  that  which  they  attempted  to  induce  the  House  not  to 
adopt,  I  should  not  have  indulged  in  a  word  of  reply ;  for,  sir,  no 
fact  I  have  adduced  from  the  public  record  of  this  or  the  last  ses 
sion  has  been  controverted  or  can  be  controverted  by  them ;  nor, 
indeed,  if  those  facts  stand,  is  there  any  reply  possible  to  the  con 
siderations  urged  by  me.  But,  instead  of  meeting  the  argument 
I  addressed  upon  a  measure  introduced  upon  grave  deliberation, 
and  referred  to  that  committee  for  its  consideration  now  nearly  a 
year  ago,  both  honorable  gentlemen  commenced  their  observations 
by  remarking  on  the  personal  feeling  and  temper  of  my  remarks. 

Now,  sir,  whether  that  temper  was  that  of  a  May  morning  or  of 
a  November  night  scarcely  affects  the  value  of  the  measure  before 
the  House.  Whether  I  am  pleased  with  or  disgusted  with  gen 
tlemen  who  preside  over  the  Navy  Department  is  not  an  argu 
ment  either  for  or  against  the  measure  I  presented.  My  wrath 
did  not  sink  the  light-draught  monitors,  and  the  puffs  of  the  Bos 
ton  Advertiser  can  not  float  them.  If  the  gentlemen  meant  to  in 
timate,  for  the  purpose  of  weakening  the  weight  of  any  observa 
tion  I  made  here,  that  the  measure  I  introduced  is  prompted  by 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  513 

any  personal  feeling  relative  to  the  gentlemen  who  control  that 
Department,  I  desire  to  say  it  is  their  invention,  and  nothing  else, 
which  gives  foundation  to  the  suggestion.  I  have  not  the  honor 
of  an  acquaintance  with  either  of  those  gentlemen.  I  have  nei 
ther  been  refused,  nor  asked,  nor  received  any  favor  at  their  hands, 
and  that  is  more  than  the  two  gentlemen  [Mr.Eice  and -Mr.  Pike] 
upon  the  committee  can  say  for  themselves. 

If  I  am  in  ill  temper,  and  that  ill  temper  is  to  affect  the  judg 
ment  of  the  House  upon  the  argument  I  presented,  it  is  only  fair 
to  say — though  I  mention  matters  of  this  kind  with  great  reluc 
tance — that  the  devotion  to  the  Department  of  the  honorable  gen 
tlemen  upon  my  right  may  be  supposed  equally  to  affect  the 
weight  of  their  arguments;  and  so  far  as  the  gentleman  upon  my 
left  [Mr.  Griswold],  who  adduces  his  testimony  to  the  efficiency 
of  the  machinery  and  the  structure  of  the  Dictator  is  concerned, 

I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  gentleman,  if  I  am  not  misin 
formed,  has  had  interest  in  the  construction  of  the  iron-clads  which 
may  naturally  be  supposed  to  warp  his  judgment  upon  that  sub 
ject  at  least  as  much  as  my  disgust  biases  mine ;  so  that,  when 
the  collateral  facts  are  made,  I  submit,  be  my  temper  what  it 
might,  my  argument  is  entitled  to  weigh  equally  with  the  argu 
ments  of  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  irrespective  of  the  temper 
that  dictated  or  pervaded  them. 

But  another  step;  and  it  is  to  the  gentlemen  I  refer.  He  spoke 
about  my  inaccuracy  touching  the  consideration  of  the  bill  before 
the  committee,  and  said,  if  I  understood  him  correctly,  that  it  had 
been  considered  promptly  by  the  committee  after  I  had  requested 
the  honorable  gentlemen  and  some  others  to  have  it  considered, 
whether  at  the  last  session  or  the  present  session  I  do  not  remem 
ber.  When  that  consideration  took  place  I  do  not  know,  and  the 
honorable  gentleman  does.  But  if  I  was  misled  by  the  statement 
of  the  distinguished  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.Spalding],  a  mem 
ber  of  the  committee,  who,  when  I  moved  this  amendment  form 
ally,  said  to  the  House,  as  an  objection  to  its  consideration,  that  it 

II  is  now  undergoing  investigation  before  that  committee"  and  if  it  was 
decided  before  that  time,  I  was  not  at  fault  in  supposing  it  had 
not  been  decided.     If  it  was  decided  since  that  time,  I  am  right 
in  supposing  that  the  judgment  was  made  while  my  amendment 
was  pending,  in  order  to  affect  the  judgment  of  the  House  unfa 
vorably  and  unregularly  upon  it. 

KK 


514  ADMINISTRATION  OF1  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

But  how  have  the  gentlemen  treated  the  measure  itself?  From 
beginning  to  end  as  if  I  had  introduced  this  bill  to  annex  the 
British  system  of  a  Board  of  Admiralty  to.  the  organization  of 
the  Navy  Department.  There  was  no  other  ground  of  objection 
or  point  of  observation  made  by  either  of  those  gentlemen,  so  far 
as  I  could  understand  them.  I  desire  to  say  that  gentlemen  who 
are  arguing  from  the  Board  of  Admiralty  of  England  against  this 
bill  do  not  know  what  that  Board  is,  or  they  never  have  read  or 
understood  this  bill.  The  Board  of  Admiralty  is  the  Navy  De 
partment  of  England.  The  six  lords  administer  the  navy ;  they 
do  not  advise  a  single  head.  They  are  the  executive  body  itself, 
not  a  council  to  advise  another  head.  It  is  formed  upon  the  old 
system  of  the  government  of  England,  which  is  ministerial,  by  a 
board  of  ministers,  and  not  by  the  nominal  head,  the  king.  The 
Board  of  Admiralty  is  the  organization  of  the  ministry  in  the  ad 
ministrative  department  of  the  navy.  That  is  the  peculiarity  of 
the  system.  Against  that  peculiarity  the  objections  to  the  Board 
of  Admiralty  in  England  are  directed  alone.  It  is  that  peculiar 
ity  which  I  do  not  propose  to  adopt,  and  it  is  upon  this  peculiarity 
of  that  Board  that  these  gentlemen  have  argued  here  against  that 
which  I  introduce. 

The  gentleman  who  is  chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee  stated 
that  a  Board  of  Naval  Commissioners  was  appointed  under  a  law 
passed  in  1815,  and  that  was  repealed,  and  the  bureau  system  was 
adopted  in  1842.  The  burden  of  his  argument  was  that  the  Na 
val  Commissioners  of  1815  was  such  a  Board  as  I  propose  now. 
Why,  Mr,.  Chairman,  does  not  the  gentleman  understand  the  his 
tory  of  the  organization  of  the  Department  which  he  here  repre 
sents  and  attempts  to  defend?  The  Navy  Commissioners  of  1815 
were  the  ministerial  organization  of  the  Department,  for  which 
were  substituted  the  present  bureaus,  now  the  ministerial  portion 
of  the  Department,  executing  the  instructions  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy.  What  I  propose — and  now,  at  least,  I  shall  be  able  to 
make  myself  understood — what  I  propose  is  not  to  remove  the 
bureaus,  not  to  substitute  any  other  organization  to  discharge 
their  ministerial  duties,  nor  to  interfere  with  the  free  discretion  of 
the  Secretary,  but  to  interpose,  on  the  French  system,  between 
the  administrative  discretion  of  the  Secretary  and  the  ministerial 
obedience  of  the  bureaus  a  council  of  naval  officers,  whose  advice 
the  Secretary  may  command  on  all  matters,  whose  opinions  he 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  515 

must  take  on  some  matters,  but  which,  when  taken,  he  is  free  to 
disregard.  Is  that  intelligible?  As  the  President  has  his  cabi 
net,  so  the  Secretary  shall  have  his  advisers.  I  would  have  the 
Secretary,  without  restricting  his  executive  discretion,  surrounded 
by  advisers  of  competent  professional  knowledge,  who  would  pre 
vent  blunders,  expose  errors,  and  furnish  light  if  the  Secretary 
have  only  eyes ;  or,  if  he  had  light,  give  him  greater  light.  The 
weaker  he  is,  the  more  he  wants  it ;  the  wiser  he  is,  the  more  he 
will  prize  and  profit  by  it. 

.  The  very  foundation  of  the  American  system  of  government  is 
an  executive  head,  with  a  council  of  advisers  around  him.  In 
view  of  the  great  errors  and  blunders  that  have  been  committed 
by  the  present  administration  of  the  Navy  Department,  I  endeav 
or  to  apply  that  same  system  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  so  as 
to  surround  him  with  professional  advisers  who  may  save  him 
from  repeating  the  errors  of  the  past  by  mere  caprice,  by  mere 
blundering,  or  by  mere  carelessness  or  haste.  If  he  had  the  genius 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  he  would  need  advice,  and  if  he  were  as 
wise  as  Napoleon  before  empire  crazed  him  he  would  seek  and 
not  decline  it.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  great  history  of 
the  Consulate  and  Empire  know  that  in  his  earlier  and  better 
days,  when  he  exhibited  greater  administrative  capacity  than  any 
man  who  had  ruled  France  since  the  days  of  Richelieu,  he  adopt 
ed  no  great  measure  of  war  or  peace,  of  diplomatic  policy  or  in 
ternal  administration,  until  it  had  been  debated  fully,  freely,  and 
deliberately  by  his  council  around  him.  The  fruits  of  that  con 
sultation  appeared  in  the  judgment  which  closed  the  sitting,  and 
in  the  event  which  consolidated  France  and  revolutionized  Eu 
rope.  It  was  only  when  an  insane  ambition — as  a  smaller  ambi 
tion  here  leads  people  to  discard  advice  and  avoid  professional 
advisers,  and  inflict  on  this  land  all  the  evils  of  personal  rule — 
only  when  an  insane  ambition  had  lured  him  on  to  the  conquest 
of  Europe,  and  his  projects  would  not  stand  discussion  even  in  his 
own  private  councils,  that  the  campaign  of  Bussia  and  the  inva 
sion  of  Spain  were  determined  on,  without  consultation,  in  spite 
of  remonstrances  now  sunk  to  whispers,  on  mere  fancies  of  his  own 
imagination ;  and  he  followed  them  to  his  ruin.  It  is  thus  all 
merely  personal  government  must  end,  and  it  is  from  mere  per 
sonal  irresponsible  rule  the  navy  is  now  suffering.  If  Napoleon 
could  take  advice,  certainly  Mr.  Welles  should  not  be  above  it. 


516  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

If  tie  needed  counselors  around  him,  I  submit  that  Mr.  Fox  is  not 
a  sufficient  counselor  for  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Now,  what  do  I  propose  ?  First,  that  professional  officers  shall 
be  appointed  by  the  President.  Next,  that  they  shall  advise  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  on  every  matter  relating  to  naval  adminis 
tration,  naval  legislation,  and  the  application  of  the  naval  force  in 
time  of  war.  It  does  not  compel  him  to  follow,  it  gives  him  the 
privilege  of  taking  the  advice  of  this  Board.  But  on  the  great 
subjects  that  involve  vast  expenditures,  the  organization  of  navy 
yards,  the  structure  of  new  vessels,  the  forms  of  iron-clads,  the 
adoption  of  new  machinery,  the  pursuit  of  new  investigations  in 
new  departments  of  inquiry,  on  these  subjects  the  bill  says,  not 
that  the  Secretary  shall  be  bound  to  come  to  the  same  conclusion 
with  the  Board,  but  that  he  shall  come  to  no  conclusion,  and  shall 
make  no  order,  until  he  has  taken  the  advice  of  this  Board.  Tell 
me  what  harm  advice  can  do  him.  It  does  not  divide  the  respons 
ibility.  It  does  not  delay  his  judgment.  It  does  not  control  his 
conclusions.  It  puts  light  around  him,  and  then  leaves  him  to 
take  the  way  to  ruin  if  he  sees  fit  to  do  so,  on  his  responsibilit}^ 
before  the  American  people,  with  the  advice  which  he  has  had, 
and  which  we  have  provided  for  him,  lying  printed  beneath  his 
eyes  to  condemn  or  to  justify  him. 

The  honorable  gentleman  who  heads  the  Naval  Committee 
[Mr.  Eice,  of  Massachusetts]  has  informed  us  that  boards  have 
been  organized  from  time  to  time  by  the  Navy  Department  for 
its  assistance,  and  that  that  is  done  continually.  Then,  sir,  if  the 
Department,  at  its  discretion,  feels  the  necessity  of  advice,  why 
should  not  the  country  have  the  benefit  of  the  experience  of  men 
responsible  to  it,  appointed  under  the  law  by  the  President  and 
confirmed  by  the  Senate,  whose  opinions  shall  stand  before  the 
country,  instead  of  having  a  commission,  packed  for  the  occasion, 
responsible  to  no  law  and  no  person,  but  simply  executing  the 
Secretary's  will  or  caprice?  Why  should  we  not  have  this 
Board,  instead  of  one  to  be  summoned,  as  in  the  case  of  the  addi 
tional  expenses  of  the  Dictator,  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the  de 
cision  of  another  Board,  and  of  coming  to  a  conclusion  more  satis 
factory  to  the  Department — the  results  of  their  adverse  judgment 
known  only  by  accident,  and  after  Congress,  in  ignorance  of  their 
findings,  had  improvidently  ratified  the  reckless  extravagance  of 
the  Department  for  "the  honor  and  interest"  of  the  government? 


v  MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  517 

The  committee  treat  my  observations  on  their  hunt  for  a  navy 
yard  as  an  imputation  on  them.  Nothing  is  farther  from  my 
meaning.  My  complaint  at  the  loss  of  their  services  in  the  House 
was  wholly  playful ;  but  the  argument  which  pointed  my  remark 
was  sharp  and  direct,  and  that  they  evaded  under  cover  of  a  per 
sonal  complaint.  Gentlemen  have  treated  this  measure  as  an  im 
putation  on  -the  Committee.  Perhaps  they  did  not  understand 
the  point  of  my  argument ;  they  did  not  answer  it.  It  was  that 
the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  conceded,  last  session,  the  neces 
sity  of  advice  by  constituting  themselves  a  Board  of  Admiralty 
for  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  If  they  thought  he  needed  ad 
vice,  and  that  they  were  competent  to  advise  him  on  the  choice 
of  navy  yards,  is  not  a  board  of  naval  officers  as  competent  and  as 
necessary  to  give  advice  upon  the  great  questions  of  naval  admin 
istration  ? 

But,  in  the  pursuit  of  their  argument,  derived  from  the  experi 
ence  of  the  Board  of  Admiralty  in  England,  the  honorable  gen 
tlemen  brought  themselves,  I  think,  into  divers  inconsistencies. 
They  even  attempted  to  play  on  our  prejudices  in  favor  of  Amer 
ican  genius.  They  are  not  more  American  than  I  am.  They  at 
tempted  to  awaken  the  susceptibilities  of  this  House  by  imputa 
tions  that  I  had  depreciated  the  enterprise  of  the  American  navy. 
Mr.  Chairman,  every  officer  of  the  American  navy  knows  that  I 
am  pleading  his  cause ;  and  if  I  do  not  give  the  names  of  officers 
of  the  first  position  in  the  navy  who  hang  breathless  on  the  pas 
sage  of  the  measure,  it  is  because  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  -the 
Navy  says  that  courts-martial  are  organized  to  convict. 

But,  sir,  let  us  pursue  the  argument  on  the  question  of  the  En 
glish  Board  of  Admiralty.  Notwithstanding  this  perpetual  Amer 
ican  gasconade  about  the  performances  of  the  Monitor  in  Hamp 
ton  Eoads,  which,  we  are  told,  according  to  English  authority 
quoted  here,  has  made  all  their  ships  useless,  neither  France  nor 
England  has  built  a  single  monitor ;  and  that  was  in  1862,  and 
we  are  now  in  1865.  Russia  has  built  thirteen  monitors,  we  are 
boastfully  told.  When  did  Eussia  become  a  naval  power  whose 
opinions  could  instruct  Americans  on  a  question  of  naval  arma 
ment  ?  Sir,  I  may  have  said  bitter  things  in  the  course  of  my 
observations,  but  I  said  nothing  so  bitter  and  so  insulting  to  the 
American  navy  or  the  Navy  Department  as  that. 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Maine  [Mr.  Pike]  informs 


518  ADMINISTKATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

us  that  English  authorities  declare  "  that  all  their  broadside  ves 
sels  of  the  iron-clad  class,  like  the  "Warrior,  will  have  to  be  built 
over."  Yet  there  they  stand  unchanged.  England  still  adheres 
to  her  system  of  broadside  iron-clads  as  tenaciously  as  she  holds 
to  the  "  exploded"  Board  of  Admiralty.  I  suppose  that  we  shall 
next  be  told  that  England  is  no  naval  power,  because  she  has 
changed  neither  the  organization  of  her  Navy  Department  nor 
the  structure  of  the  iron-clads  that  she  has  built. 

The  honorable  gentleman  has  cited  another  authority,  Sir 
Charles  Napier,  one  of  the  Napiers  so  proverbial  for  their  quar 
rels  in  both  branches  of  the  English  service.  But  what  does  he 
complain  of?  Unfair  promotion  and  lack  of  responsibility.  Will 
the  gentleman  ask  any  officer  of  the  navy  of  the  United  States 
whether  he  thinks  the  promotions  in  our  navy  are  fair?  That 
is  a  most  unfortunate  topic  for  the  honorable  gentleman  just 
now,  that  the  Department  has  organized  the  Board  of  promo 
tions,  on  which  its  malice  has  excluded  the  officers  of  the  South 
Atlantic  Squadron  from  the  representation  accorded  every  other 
squadron.  Where  is  any  responsibility?  Who  is  responsible 
for  any  thing  that  is  done  ?  For  we  have  a  head  that  does  noth 
ing,  and  the  active  power  under  him,  irresponsible,  that  does  ev 
ery  thing. 

Then  the  same  honorable  gentleman  quoted  a  high  English 
authority  as  saying  that  it  would  be  an  outrage  to  send  men  into 
action  in  wooden  vessels.  Why  does  he  cast  such  an  imputation 
upon  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department,  that  sent  Farragut  to 
Mobile  and  Porter  to  Fort  Fisher  in  wooden  vessels,  and  is  now 
building  a  whole  fleet  of  them,  with  engines  alone  costing  §400,000 
and  $600,000  each? 

But  a  word  on  the  question  of  iron-clads  abroad.  The  "Amer 
ican  idea,"  as  it  is  called,  embodied  in  the  Monitor  and  the  Dic 
tator,  has  hitherto  produced  nothing  that  will  cross  the  ocean. 
The  New  Ironsides,  that  will  cross  it,  is  not  on  that  American  idea, 
but  a  copy  of  the  Warrior.  And,  whatever  opinions  of  maga 
zines  or  officers  the  gentleman  from  Maine  may  quote,  it  is  not 
true  either  that  England  or  France  has  adopted  the  American 
idea,  or  abandoned  as  failures  the  Warrior  or  La  Gloire.  Against 
those  hasty  suggestions  I  quote  and  prefer  the  opinion  of  an 
American  naval  constructor,  whom  the  gentleman  from  Maine 
so  justly  eulogized,  the  great  naval  constructor  of  the  United 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  519 

States,  Lenthall,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  our  great  superi 
ority  in  the  structure  of  our  wooden  vessels.  He  does  not  think 
that  the  iron-clads  of  either  England  or  France  are  a  failure,  but 
does  think  that  we  have  nothing  to  oppose  them.  Here  are  his 
words : 

"  For  the  protection  of  our  coasts  and  harbors  we  are  probably  well  prepared ; 
but  we  have  only  three  vessels  that  can  pretend  to  cope  with  the  sea-going  iron 
clad  vessels  of  European  nations,  and  these  have  not  yet  been  tried.  It  is  a  prob 
lem  to  be  yet  resolved  whether  a  large  steam  vessel,  with  her  deck  a  foot  or  two 
above  water,  and  without  sails,  can  be  effective  and  use  her  guns  as  a  cruising 
ship.  Experience  has  shown  that  as  ships  increase  in  dimensions  and  weight  there 
must  be  a  certain  relative  portion  above  the  water— that  is,  the  height  of  the  guns 
from  the  water  should  be  increased ;  but  this  may,  to  some  extent,  be  modified  by 
making  sacrifices  in  some  other  qualities. 

"The  accounts  we  have  of  the  performances  of  the  ironrclad  European  ves 
sels,  if  to  be  relied  on,  show  that  the  elevated  position  of  their  armor-plating  has  not 
seriously  affected  the  motion  of  the  vessels,  and  some  of  them  are  represented  as 
being  easier  than  ordinary  vessels.  Their  large  dimensions  have  much  influence  in 
this ;  but  our  principal  harbors  do  not  permit  us  to  have  so  great  a  draught  of  wa 
ter  as  European  vessels  have,  which  is  stated  to  be  from  twenty-six  to  twenty-seven 
feet." 

Now,  sir,  with  reference  to  the  iron-clad  navies  of  France  and 
England,  abandoned  upon  the  mere  rumor  of  the  impossible  Dic 
tator,  let  me  read  again : 

"  Until  such  time  as  it  becomes  the  policy  of  the  government  to  build  iron-armed 
vessels  for  sea  -service — and,  whenever  commenced,  it  will  require  some  years  to 
have  them  in  sufficient  number  to  keep  an  enemy  from  our  coast — we  must  have  re 
course  to  plating  wood  vessels,  of  which  the  first  cost  may  appear  less,  though  it  is 
certain  to  be  more  expensive  in  the  end. 

"Unless  we  have  armored  sea-going  ships" — 

not  Monitors,  not  Dictators,  not  Dunderbergs,  but  armed  sea-going 
ships — 

"we  must  give  up  the  expectation  of  engaging  our  foes  on  the  ocean,  and  must 
limit  our  operations  to  attacks  on  their  commerce  with  fast  and  light-armored 
vessels." 

That  is  the  judgment  of  our  great  naval  constructor  upon  the 
extent  to  which  the  American  idea  of  monitors  has  affected  the 
sea-going  iron-clads  of  Europe.  He  declares  that  we  must  go  to 
work  and  build  iron-clads  of  the  same  class,  if  we  contemplate 
meeting  them  on  the  ocean  in  battle  array. 

I  will  not  repeat  what  I  quoted  from  Admiral  Porter  about 
the  New  Ironsides — the  only  vessel  of  that  kind  in  the  navy — 


520  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

the  best  he  ever  saw  for  aggressive  purposes,  the  counterpart  of 
the  Warrior ;  so  that  the  "Warrior  class  can  not  be  a  failure,  if  she 
is  not.  But  I  can  not  refrain  from  invoking  against  the  Depart 
ment  and  the  gentleman  from  Maine  the  judgment  of  Dahlgren, 
who  went  to  Charleston  to  do  impossibilities,  and  staid  there  two 
years  without  accomplishing  them ;  who  went  there  to  show  that 
monitors  could  take  forts,  and  has  taken  none.  Though  he  was 
pledged  by  his  appointment  to  a  judgment  in  favor  of  the  admin 
istration  wherever  it  was  possible,  his  scientific  judgment  could 
not  be  so  deluded  as  to  overlook  the  great  power  of  this  form  of 
vessels.  He  ventures  no  opinion  on  the  monitor  form  for  sea 
going  cruisers,  apologetically  refuses  a  judgment  on  the  general 
merits  of  iron-clads  of  that  class,  but  gives  the  palm  of  superiority 
for  aggression  t©  the  form  which  the  gentleman  from  Maine  sup 
poses  the  monitors  have  superseded. 

"  The  Ironsides  is  a  fine,  powerful  ship.  Her  armor  has  stood  heavy  battering 
very  well,  and  her  broadsides  of  seven  eleven-inch  guns  and  one  eight-inch  rifle  has 
always  told  with  signal  effect  when  opened  on  the  enemy.  Draught  of  water  about 
fifteen  and  a  half  to  sixteen  feet.  Speed  six  to  seven  knots,  and  crew  about  four 
hundred  and  forty  men. 

"Just  as  they  are,  the  Ironsides  is  capable  of  a  more  rapid  and  concentrated  fire, 
which,  under  the  circumstances,  made  her  guns  more  effective  than  the  fifteen-inch 
of  the  monitors." 

He,  pledged  by  his  appointment  to  a  judgment  in  favor  of  the 
administration  of  the  Navy  Department,  as  far  as  it  is  possible 
to  bend  his  scientific  judgment  to  meet  the  expectations  of  the 
Department,  can  not  be  so  used  as  to  put  out  of  sight  the  great 
power  of  this  form  of  vessel,  or  to  venture-  an  opinion  in  favor  of 
monitors  beyond  the  special  circumstances  of  war.  He  says  this 
corroborates  in  every  particular  the  statement  of  Admiral  Porter 
read  by  me,  that  that  vessel,  constructed  on  that  model,  came  more 
perfectly  up  to  his  idea  of  those  intended  for  aggression  than  any 
other  he  had  ever  seen. 

Now,  sir,  I  agree  with  the  honorable  gentlemen  of  the  commit 
tee  that  we  can- not  adjust  these  conflicting  authorities.  But  here 
stands  the  great  fact,  that  while  the  great  clamor  across  the  water 
exaggerates  the  effect  produced  by  the  attack  of  the  Monitor  upon 
the  Merrimac,  it  has  not  changed  the  course  of  European  struc 
ture;  it  has  not  produced  a  single  monitor  in  the  ports  of  France 
or  England ;  and  the  judgment  of  our  naval  officers  is  in  conflict 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  521 

with  the  opinions  quoted  from  abroad,  responsible  or  irresponsi 
ble,  by  the  gentleman  from  Maine,  but  conforms  to  the  official 
judgments  of  France  and  England,  that  vessels  of  the  Ironsides 
class  are  neither  a  failure,  nor  inferior  to  the  American  idea  em 
bodied  in  the  monitors.  I  prefer  the  judgment  of  American  naval 
officers  to  the  j  udgment  of  English  naval  officers,  and  still  more 
to  the  clamor  of  English  magazines ;  and  in  any  legislation  for 
the  benefit  of  the  navy  I  should  consult  their  judgment,  and  not  a 
criticism  of  the  English  Board  of  Admiralty,  which  is  not  analo 
gous  to  the  one  I  propose.  Arguing  from  one  to  another  is  mere 
ly  for  the  purpose  of  misleading  the  judgment  of  the  House,  or  be 
cause  gentlemen  did  not  understand  the  bill  they  are  criticising. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  contemplate  following  either  of  the 
gentlemen  through  their  arguments,  in  which  they  evaded  every 
thing  that  was  to  be  answered,  and  controverted  many  things 
which  were  not  asserted.  But  I  desire  to  say,  when  my  honora 
ble  friend  on  my  right  [Mr.  Eice,  of  Massachusetts]  spoke  of  the 
swiftness  of  the  Eutaw — as  if  that  in  the  least  degree  controverted 
my  statements  in  reference  to  war  vessels  of  the  navy,  and  not  to 
those  river  boats,  as  I  termed  them — he  was  introducing  a  topic 
I  had  not  touched.  I  did  not  mean  to  say  one  word  in  respect 
to  the  speed  of  those  vessels,  because  I  considered  them  set  out  of 
the  account  as  naval  vessels.  But  the  honorable  gentleman  must 
not  suppose  that  I  can  allow  to  pass  his  statement  of  the  perform 
ance  of  this  vessel  in  smooth  river  water,  without  her  provisions, 
without  her  ammunition — I  do  not  know  whether  she  had  her 
armament — certainly  without  her  full  load  of  coal,  under  none  of 
the  conditions  of  a  vessel  going  to  sea,  subjected  to  no  collision 
with  the  waves,  as  if  I  accepted  that  as  a  test  of  the  power  of  the 
same  vessel  at  sea. 

Mr.  EICE,  of  Massachusetts.  Does  the  gentleman  want  to  hear 
the  report  of  Admiral  Porter  in  reference  to  sea -going  of  that 
vessel? 

Mr.  DAVIS.  The  report  will  show  what  I  state  to  be  correct ; 
but  no  form  of  machinery  of  a  paddle-wheel  steamer  can  be  pro 
tected,  and  therefore  none  of  these  vessels  are  war  vessels. 

But,  sir,  what  I  meant  to  refer  to  now,  though  not  covered  by 
my  former  remarks,  is  this :  that  it  will  appear  that  after  the  ex 
plosion  of  the  Chenango  in  New  York  Harbor,  killing  and  wound 
ing  nobody  can  tell  how  many  of  our  sailors,  an  investigation  took 


522  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

place  before  the  Coroner,  who,  after  a  full  investigation  upon  the 
evidence,  stated  the  result  of  the  evidence  to  the  jury ;  and  it  went 
to  show  conclusively  that  the  boilers  placed  in  this  vessel,  and 
others  of  her  class,  which  were  condemned  by  the  Board  of  En 
gineers  summoned  by  the  Navy  Department  were  so  liable,  by 
their  peculiar  structure,  to  exhaust  the  water  in  the  boiler,  that  it 
was  dangerous  to  run  the  vessel  with  open  ports  or  full  power. 
And  that  was  proved  by  the  officers  of  the  vessel  themselves. 

I  now  send  to  the  Clerk  to  be  read  an  extract  from  that  inves 
tigation. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

"It  is  apparent  that  the  engineer  corps  of  the  navy,  as  well  as  the  persons  whose 
plans  are  involved,  have  a  deep  interest  in  assigning  some  other  cause  than  low 
water,  since,  if  it  were  low,  it  must  have  been  so  either  from  the  carelessness  of  en 
gineers,  or  from  inherent  defects  in  the  organization  which  baffled  the  ordinary  skill 
of  such  persons  as  had  the  machine  in  charge ;  yet  no  attempt  has  been  made  to 
explain  away  the  melted  lead,  or  to  reconcile  its  presence  with  the  fact  that  there 
was  enough  water  in  the  boiler.  And  as  this  is  the  ordinary  cause  of  explosion,  it 
would  seem  consequently  the  true  one  here,  particularly  since  no  evidence  of  any 
sort  has  been  produced  to  substitute  any  other  cause  ;  and  we  are  left  to  the  mere 
suggestion,  without  proof,  that  possibly  the  braces  might  have  been  taken  out  by 
Mr.  Cahill  and  not  replaced,  or  possibly  the  cold-water  test,  which  experience  has 
shown  to  be  infallible,  has  in  this  case  proved  a  snare.  Unfortunately  there  are 
other  facts,  which  point  out  very  clearly  the  existence  of  an  organic  disease  in  these 
vessels,  requiring  the  utmost  vigilance  to  guard  against,  the  presence  of  which  is 
abundantly  proved.  A  number  of  these  vessels  are  just  now  coming  out,  and  it  so 
happened  that  on  Saturday,  the  16th,  the  day  after  this  explosion,  the  Pautuxent, 
having  been  run  for  ninety-six  hours  at  the  dock,  was  taken  out  on  a  trial  trip  from 
Providence.  In  the  course  of  the  run  it  became  necessary  to  shut  off  the  steam 
from  the  engine  from  some  cause,  and  thus  the  fact  appeared  that  the  water,  which 
had  seemed  to  be  abundant  in  the  gauges,  was  low.  Mr.  Baker,  an  experienced 
engineer,  who  sat  up  and  ran  the  engine  on  her  ninety-six  hours'  trial,  at  once  had 
the  fires  drawn  from  the  furnaces  as  a  measure  of  safety,  the  necessity  of  which, 
under  the  circumstances,  Mr.  Sewell  admitted  to  you  when  on  the  stand ;  and  it 
was  found  that  the  steam-pump  required  twenty-two  minutes  to  reeupply  the  boiler 
with  the  water  found  wanting,  although  the  gauges  had  given  no  warning  of  its  ab 
sence.  But  for  Mr.  Baker  this  accident  would  have  probably  had  its  counterpart ; 
and  so  convinced  of  the  danger  of  the  machine  was  Mr.  Baker,  that  he  refused  to 
come  to  New  York  in  the  vessel  unless  he  had  the  control  given  him ;  and  he  has 
told  us  these  facts,  and  sworn  to  the  danger. 

"On  the  Chenango,  the  experienced  engineers  who  ran  the  engine  at  the  dock 
have  told  us  that  they  considered  their  lives  in  danger  from  the  liability  to  low 
water,  and  so  convinced  were  they  of  it  that  they  refused  to  open  wide  the  throttle 
valve,  though  the  United  States  engineers  who  were  present  insisted  that  the  con- 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  523 

tract  required  the  engine  to  be  run  wide  open.  Mr.  Smith,  the  engineer  who  erect 
ed  and  ran  the  engine  of  the  Metacomet,  another  of  the  same  class,  has  proved  here 
that  the  water  could  only  be  kept  in  her  boilers  by  so  setting  the  valves  that  when 
those  valves  were  ordered  by  Mr.  Sewell  to  be  set  so  as  to  open  wider,  and  the  ves 
sel  was  run  from  the  shop  to  the  navy  yard,  the  water  worked  so  that  the  valves 
had  to  be  put  back  to  the  original  position,  which  was  done  by  himself  at  the  navy 
yard,  under  orders  from  the  chief  engineer  of  the  ship.  The  drawings  of  these  en 
gines  have  been  produced  before  us,  and  the  measurements  made  of  the  cubic  feet 
of  vacant  space  which  existed  in  these  cylinders  between  the  valves  when  they  are 
closed  and  the  piston  when  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  cylinder  nearest  the  closed 
valves,  and-  it  appears  that  these  spaces  are  great  enough  to  hold  more  than  sixteen 
hundred  pounds  of  water  at  a  revolution  before  they  will  be  filled  so  as  to  arrest  the 
motion  of  the  piston  as  it  approaches  the  end  of  the  cylinder,  and  compel  the  open 
ing  of  the  relief  valves,  which  are  placed  in  each  end  of  the  cylinder  to  prevent  the 
destruction  of  the  engine  by  the  confinement  of  the  solid  water  in  the  cylinder ;  yet 
it  appears  here  that  even  more  than  this  quantity  of  water  would  at  times  come 
over  from  the  boiler  at  a  revolution,  and  that  these  self-acting  relief  valves  had  to 
be  opened  constantly  by  hand,  to  permit  the  escape  of  this  enormous  quantity  of 
water  more  freely  than  it  could  be  voided  by  the  self-acting  valves.  When  it  is 
considered  that  only  about  nine  pounds  of  water  in  the  shape  of  steam  are  needed 
to  make  the  ordinary  revolution  of  these  engines,  and  that  at  times  they  draw  even 
more  than  three  quarters  of  a  ton  of  water  at  a  revolution,  it  is  very  easy  to  show 
how  the  boilers  might  be  robbed  of  their  water  in  a  very  few  minutes,  and  the  atten 
tion  of  an  ordinary  man  be  eluded. 

"The  coal  burned  by  the  Chenango  on  her  trial  has  been  proved,  and  the  amount 
of  steam  which  that  coal  produced  has  been  measured  on  the  indicator  diagrams 
which  were  taken  on  the  trials,  by  which  it  is  proved  that  in  the  form  of  steam  these 
boilers  only  evaporate  from  three  to  four  pounds  of  water  to  the  pound  of  coal, 
whereas  if  they  did  not  use  up  the  heat  by  carrying  it  off  from  the  boiler  in  hot 
water,  they  would  evaporate  seven  or  eight  pounds  of  water  into  steam  ;  and  it  is  tes 
tified  to  here,  and  the  calculations  show  upon  the  indicator  diagrams  themselves, 
that  these  engines  must  have  been  working  out  of  the  boilers,  in  water,  on  an  aver 
age,  during  the  ninety-six  hours  of  the  trial,  about  six  times  as  much  hot  water  as 
steam.  Of  the  accuracy  of  such  calculation,  based  upon  comparing  the  weight  of 
coal  burned  with  the  cubic  feet  of  steam  used  by  the  engine,  you  are  perhaps  better 
judges  than  I  am  ;  but  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  these  calculations  have  been  on  the 
table  for  several  days  challenging  contradiction,  and  that  they  are  not  disputed.  It 
is  farther  proved  here  that  a  considerable  number  of  these  vessels,  exactly  like  the 
Chenango,  have  been  recently  built  and  tried,  and  that  they  are  now  awaiting  orders 
for  sea ;  yet  no  witness  has  appeared  before  us  to  say  that  any  of  the  other  of  these 
vessels  have  operated  differently  from  those  whose  performance  has  been  proved ; 
although  there  is  no  want  of  proof  that  when  these  boilers  are  arranged  with  a  high 
steam  space  above  the  ends  of  the  tubes,  and  a  steam  chimney,  they  do  not  work 
out  their  water.  It  would  have  been  much  more  instructive  to  us  if  the  engineers 
who  have  run  so  many  of  these  low-roofed  boilers  had  been  produced,  instead  of 
those  whose  only  experience  has  been  with  boilers  not  liable  to  that  difficulty. 


52-i  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

"It  is  not  very  surprising,  perhaps,  that  among  the  great  number  of  vessels  used 
by  the  United  States  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  young  men  who  have  had  but  little 
experience,  and  who  are  employed  when  there  is  a  scarcity  of  engineers,  on  account 
of  the  great  demand  for  the  services  of  such  men  suddenly  made  by  the  navy,  that 
an  explosion  should  occur  at  some  time  ;  and  if  the  machinery  were  of  the  ordinary 
kind,  the  accident  would  excite  no  unusual  interest.  But  when  it  occurs  on  ma 
chinery  peculiar  in  its  construction,  and  which  had  been  condemned  as  inferior  by 
an  official  board  of  the  most  eminent  engineers  in  the  country ;  and  when  it  appears 
that  those  peculiarities  have  so  exhibited  their  dangerous  qualities  as  to  alarm  prac 
tical  and  scientific  men,  and  to  induce  them  to  foretell  an  accident  of  this  kind ; 
and  when  we  find  these  peculiarities  existing  on  a  greater  number  of  other  vessels 
just  coming  into  use,  upon  which  the  lives  of  our  fellow-citizens  are  to  be  intrusted, 
then  it  is  of  serious  consequence,  and  demands  of  us  to  raise  a  voice  of  warning  in 
time  to  prevent  any  more  such  horrors  as  we  have  witnessed.  Our  brave  men, 
who  are  willing  to  expose  their  bosoms  to  the  enemy's  shot,  ought  not  to  be  subject 
ed  to  the  chances  of  a  horrible  death  at  the  hands  of  their  own  friends,  and  in  their 
own  floating  homes." 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  So  much  for  the  boilers  of  the  double- 
enders. 

Two  gentlemen  of  the  Naval  Committee  have  made  great  com 
plaint  that  I  imposed  upon  them  last  year  a  burden  too  heavy  to 
be  borne  in  the  resolution  of  inquiry  I  introduced  relative  to 
steam  machinery.  Mr.  Chairman,  when  I  referred  that  resolution 
to  the  Naval  Committee,  I  thought  I  was  paying  them  the  highest 
compliment  I  could  bestow,  for  I  supposed  I  was  sending  a  res 
olution  to  a  committee  which,  from  its  connection  with  the  De 
partment,  would  have  the  best  means  possible  of  information,  and 
from  their  devotion  to  the  interest  of  the  navy  would  prosecute 
their  inquiry  with  energy  and  thoroughness,  and  give  us  the  full 
benefit  of  their  judgment.  It  related  to  the  same  matter  investi 
gated  in  part  by  the  Board  of  Engineers  organized  by  the  Depart 
ment  in  1863,  and  disregarded  by  the  Department.  It  was  intend 
ed  to  save  the  ruin  of  the  machinery  of  the  navy,  to  bring  it  to 
the  test  of  science  and  knowledge ;  and  the  topics  which  were  to 
be  inquired  into  could  have  been  inquired  into  effectually  as  well 
in  the  course  of  two  weeks  as  in  the  time  which  has  elapsed  from 
the  day  that  resolution  was  brought  in  down  to  the  day  the  com 
mittee  brought  in  their  report  about  a  week  ago.  There  was  a 
few  topics,  and  only  a  few,  requiring  investigation,  which  the  ex 
amination  of  half  a  dozen  engineers  would  have  settled  almost 
immediately,  and  the  Department  and  this  House  would  have  had 
the  results  of  this  investigation  upon  that  subject  in  time  to  act 
upon  it 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  525 

But,  on  the  contrary,  what  do  we  find  ?  The  stupendous  dili 
gence  of  the  gentlemen  of  that  committee  had  absorbed  all  their 
leisure  time  from  the  day  of  the  reference  of  the  resolution  down 
to  the  day,  I  think,  before  the  motion  made  by  me  to  append  this 
amendment  to  the  Navy  Bill.  An  immense  mass  of  testimony- 
twenty  hundred  pages — was  introduced,  which  nobody  can  possi 
bly  read,  which  nobody  can  possibly  consider.  Their  report 
came  here,  and  has  not  yet  been  printed.  It  is  worth  now  sub 
stantially,  no  matter  how  wise  or  correct  the  resolution  to  which 
the  committee  came,  just  as  much  as  the  paper  upon  which  it  will 
be  printed,  because  during  the  time  that  the  investigation  was 
being  carried  on  the  Department  had  been  building  the  very  ma 
chinery  that  it  was  intended  to  test,  and  correct,  and  examine. 
Just  as  the  Department  has  kept  an  investigation  going  on  to 
verify  the  results  of  the  engineers  appointed  in  February,  1863, 
still  diligently  at  work  in  November,  1864,  and  all  the  time,  the 
Department,  since  February,  1863,  has  been  building  the  ma 
chinery  ;  so  that,  without  its  being  intended  to  have  that  effect 
by  the  gentleman  making  that  investigation,  exactly  the  same 
result  has  been  accomplished — that  is  to  say,  the  government 
does  not  get  the  advantage  of  that  investigation  at  all;  but,  while 
the  investigation  has  been  lumbering  on,  every  machine-shop  in 
the  country  has  been  ringing  with  the  construction  of  the  very 
machinery  which  is  in  question.  In  a  word,  both  investigations 
have  been  a  mere  screen  to  the  Department,  giving  impunity  to 
its  gross  abuse  of  the  public  confidence. 

Mr.  GANSON.  I  would  ask  the  gentleman  if  it  would  not  be  a 
more  direct  and  reliable  mode  of  obtaining  information  to  have 
the  head  of  the  Naval  Department  upon  this  floor  ? 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  answer  that  question  with  very  great 
pleasure.  If  the  information  were  in  the  head  of  the  Department, 
I  would  say  yes.  (Laughter.) 

Mr.  GANSON.  I  would  ask  the  gentleman  if  he  has  found  that 
it  is  out  ?  (Laughter.) 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  fear  the  gentleman  does  not  give 
me  credit  for  as  much  acuteness  as  I  flattered  myself  I  possessed. 
I  had  found  that  out  long  ago.  (Laughter.) 

I  take  leave  of  this  digression. 

Sir,  I  submit  that  this  measure  must  be  determined  on  its  mer 
its.  Gentlemen  can  not  escape  responsibility  before  the  country 


526  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

by  saying  that  I  proposed  it  out  of  ill  temper;  nor  that  a  vote  for 
it  might  disturb  their  relations  with  the  Department ;  nor  that 
their  appointments  might  be  interfered  with ;  nor  that  it  might 
diminish  their  capacity  to  serve  their  constituents  with  the  head 
of  the  Department,  whom  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Blow] 
eulogized  so  strenuously,  I  take  it,  in  order  to  procure  favor  for 
his  navy  yard  at  Carondelet.  These  arguments  can  not  support 
them  before  the  country,  and  they  are  dangerous  arguments  to 
go  into  a  political  contest  on.  I  ask  a  vote  upon  the  measure  I 
propose,  not  upon  my  disgust  at  the  Department ;  I  ask  the  vote 
upon  the  public  considerations  which  must  determine  the  judg 
ment  of  the  country  that  the  measure  is  right  or  wrong.  I  ask 
gentlemen  to  say  whether  they  think  the  Navy  Department  has 
been  managed  so  during  this  war  that  no  advice  can  improve  it. 
I  ask  whether  they  are  content  that  the  American  commerce 
shall  have  been  swept  from  the  ocean  by  five  rebel  privateers, 
with  six  hundred  cruisers  in  our  navy  to  catch  and  destroy  them. 
I  ask  them  if  they  think  that  American  commerce  can  live  if 
this  is  what  we  call  an  energetic  and  wise  management  of  the 
Navy  Department.  If  we  give  the  navy  a  chance  to  live,  and 
a  voice  in  its  own  preservation,  we  may  rescue  our  commerce 
from  destruction ;  and  when  we  are  called  upon  to  meet  a  grand 
naval  power  on  the  ocean,  we  shall  not  be  driven  to  imitate  the 
plundering  warfare  of  the  rebels,  and,  shunning  our  armed  ene 
mies,  go  mousing  over  the  ocean  for  their  defenseless  commerce, 
but,  like  a  great  power,  meet  our  foes  in  arms,  and  dictate  terms 
of  peace  on  the  water  as  well  as  on  the  land.  When  gentlemen 
shall  take  steps  to  do  that,  America  will  be  a  power ;  but  as  long 
as  Congress  will  not  assert  its  supremacy  over  the  Departments, 
and  prescribe  such  organization  of  them  as  will  give  this  nation 
the  benefit  of  its  resources,  so  long  as  Congress  stops  to  inquire 
what  the  Departments  wish  instead  of  imposing  on  them  what 
the  interest  of  the  nation  requires,  we  will  be  powerless  before  the 
nations  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  am  here  to-day  pleading  the 
cause  of  the  American  navy  against  the  Navy  Department.  I 
am  saying  what  four  out  of  five  of  the  officers  of  the  navy  would 
say  had  they  a  voice  in  this  House.  I  say  what  the  ablest  and 
leading  men  of  the  navy  would  say  to-day  through  the  newspa 
pers,  were  it  not  that  the  fear  of  exposure  makes  the  Department 


MONITORS  AND  ARMORED  SHIPS.  527 

despotic.  Gentlemen  quote  here  the  opinions  of  the  officers  of 
the  British  navy  against  the  administration  of  their  navy ;  but 
who  in  our  navy  dare  say  any  thing  against  our  Navy  Depart 
ment?  Have  we  not  seen  one  of  the  most  distinguished  officers 
of  our  navy,  Admiral  Wilkes,  for  controverting  statements  in  the 
report  of  the  Department  seriously  affecting  his  honor  as  an  offi 
cer,  dragged  before  a  court?  Was  that  court  organized  "to  con 
vict,"  in  the  language  of  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ? 
He  was  dragged  before  a  court  for  vindicating  himself  and  his 
own  administration  of  the  squadron  under  his  command,  and  sub 
jected  to  three  years'  suspension  from  service — a  cruel  and  dis 
graceful  persecution,  such  as  has  never  before  tarnished  the  ad 
ministration  of  the  American  navy.  Sir,  this  system  of  tyranny 
in  the  Department  deprives  the  country  of  the  benefit  of  the  opin 
ion,  and  advice,  and  judgment  of  the  officers  of  the  navy  upon  the 
structure  and  organization  of  the  American  navy.  They  are  al 
ways  ready  to  risk  their  lives  and  shed  their  blood  on  any  thing 
that  will  float,  but  they  shrink  from  advising  the  country  for  the 
benefit  of  the  navy  at  the  expense  of  a  trial  by  a  court  organized 
to  convict.  Let  them  have  a  voice  in  the  making  of  the  vessels 
they  are  to  navigate ;  let  them  have  a  voice  in  the  selection  of  the 
artillery  they  are  to  use ;  let  them  have  a  voice  in  advising  where 
they  shall  be  sent.  Had  this  been  done,  the  Alabama's  career 
would  have  been  shorter  and  less  disastrous.  The  coal  depots 
and  other  necessities  of  navigation,  the  lines  of  commercial  transit, 
the  passes  of  the  seas  pointed  out  where  the  rebel  cruisers  must 
go  from  any  given  point,  and  any  competent  board  could  have 
devised  a  plan  to  meet  and  destroy  them.  Under  the  spasmodic 
guesswork  by  which  the  Alabama  was  pursued  by  this  Depart 
ment  for  four  years,  our  commerce  was  swept  from  the  ocean, 
sent  to  the  bottom,  or  driven  under  foreign  flags.  Eebel  cruisers 
burnt  our  ships  not  merely  on  distant  seas,  but  almost  within 
sight  of  the  American  coast;  and  then  the  Department  tele 
graphed  to  the  navy  yards,  and  all  the  newspapers  were  filled 
with  eulogies  of  the  marvelous  diligence  of  the  Department  in 
setting  vessels  afloat  to  catch  the  rebel  cruisers.  The  seas  swarm 
ed  with  vessels  sent  to  the  spot  where  the  burning  took  place,  and 
came  back  to  report  that  the  rebel  cruisers  were  not  there,  and 
that  nothing  was  found  but  the  ashes  of  the  conflagration.  That 
system,  sir,  is  one  which  could  not  have  existed  had  there  been 


528       ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  ETC. 

competent  professional  advisers  around  the  Secretary.  His  own 
patriotism ;  his  feeling  for  his  country's  cause ;  the  vain  clamor  of 
New  York  merchants  ;  their  cry  to  him  to  spare  their  commerce, 
would  have  compelled  him  to  listen,  if  the  law  had  only  clothed 
a  board  of  officers  with  the  right  to  speak,  free  from  the  danger 
of  courts-martial  organized  to  convict.  It  is  that  great  defi 
ciency  that  I  am  now  trying  to  remedy.  I  am  not  influenced  by 
any  estimate  of  the  personal  value  of  the  present  Secretary,  or 
of  any  other  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  Be  he  as  respectable  as  he 
may,  be  he  as  able  and  upright  as  he  may,  be  he  as  honest  and 
efficient  as  he  may,  I  would  not  waste  five  minutes  of  the  pre 
cious  time  of  this  House  in  eulogizing  or  condemning  him.  I 
look  beyond  men  to  measures.  I  look  beyond  the  head  of  the 
Department  to  the  great  country  which  that  Department  repre 
sents.  I  look  beyond  the  brief  and  flitting  moments  of  his  offi 
cial  life,  now  rapidly  drawing  to  a  close — if  the  prayer  of  every 
naval  officer  can  be  heard — to  the  day  when  the  American  nation 
will  have  to  vindicate  its  power  before  the  nations  of  the  world 
now  insidiously  seeking  our  ruin,  not  by  stealthy  depredations 
on  unarmed  traders,  but  with  a  navy  bearing  proudly  the  banner 
of  the  republic  over  the  seas,  worthy  to  meet  in  arms  the  armed 
foes  of  the  thirty  millions  of  united  Americans  whose  freedom 
and  empire  it  guards,  and  able  to  prove  on  some  great  historic 
day  that  the  republic  can  neither  be  torn  asunder  by  internal  dis 
sensions  nor  browbeaten  by  the  coalesced  monarchies  of  Europe. 
(Applause  on  the  floor.) 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

Ox  the  21st  of  February,  1865,  the  bill  for  reconstructing  the  govern 
ments  in  the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  reported  from  the  joint  commit 
tee  on  that  subject,  was  under  consideration  in  the  House.  Various 
amendments  were  offered,  proposing  that  senators  and  representatives 
should  not  be  received  from  those  States  until  Congress  should  first 
declare  that  a  just  local  government  had  been  organized  therein,  and 
such  State  .entitled  to  representation  in  Congress,  or  until  a  Constitu 
tion  had  been  adopted,  guaranteeing  to  all  persons  freedom  and  equal 
rights  before  the  law.  A  motion  was  then  made  to  strike  out  the  en 
acting  clause  of  the  bill.  The  bill,  as  reported  by  Mr.  Davis  from  the 
committee,  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  provisional  governor  by 
the  President  in  eleven  States  declared  in  rebellion,  who  were  to  carry 
out  in  those  States,  by  the  military  aid  of  the  United  States,  the  provi 
sions  of  the  act.  It  provided  for  the  assessment  and  collection  of  taxes 
from  the  year  next  preceding  the  overthrow  of  the  recognized  State  gov 
ernment  ;  for  the  complete  freedom — in  fact,  enforced  by  United  States 
authority — of  all  persons  heretofore  held  to  labor;  for  the  enrollment  of 
all  white  male  citizens  over  twenty-one  of  such  States,  with  a  view  to 
the  election  of  a  Legislature,  when  the  majority  of  such  citizens  should 
take  the  oath  prescribed,  and  not  before  ;  and  the  reconstruction,  through 
such  Legislature,  of  its  relations  with  the  federal  government. 

Various  substitutes  and  amendments  were  proposed,  and  finally,  in 
lieu  of  the  bill,  another  was  offered  by  the  committee,  providing  that  all 
citizens  of  the  United  States  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  (omitting  the 
words  white  residents  of  the  State),  and  all  such  honorably  discharged 
from  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States,  together  with 
the  loyal  citizens  enrolled  as  aforesaid,  and  who  shall  take  and  subscribe 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  shall  be  electors,  and  may 
vote  for  delegates  for  the  Convention  (to  restore  the  relations  of  the 
State),  but  excluding  therefrom  any  person  who  held  any  office  under 
the  rebel  usurpation,  and  from  voting  also  at  such  election. 

Upon  this  bill  and  amendments  offered,  Mr.  Davis  closed  the  debate, 
on  the  21st  of  February,  18G5,  as  follows: 

MR.  SPEAKER, — I  merely  rise  to  state  the  case  for  the  House. 
If  I  can  find  voice  enough  to  do  that,  I  shall  have  accomplished 
as  much  as  I  expect. 

LL 


530       RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

The  bill,  which  is  now  the  test  to  which  amendments  are  pend 
ing,  is  the  same  bill  which  received  the  assent  of  both  houses  of 
Congress  at  the  last  session,  with  the  following  modifications  to 
suit  the  tender  susceptibilities  of  gentlemen  from  Massachusetts : 
1st,  the  sixth  section,  declaring  rebel  officers  not  citizens  of 
United  States,  has  been  stricken  out ;  2d,  the  taxation  clause  has 
been  stricken  out ;  3d,  the  word  "  government"  has  been  inserted 
before  "  trial  and  punishment"  to  meet  the  refined  criticisms  of 
the  two  gentlemen  from  Massachusetts,  who  suppose  that  penal 
laws  could  be  in  force,  and  operative,  when  the  penalties  were 
forbidden  to  be  enforced ;  that  discriminating  laws  could  survive 
the  declaration  that  there  should  be  no  discrimination  between 
different  persons  in  trial  and  punishment.  There  has  been  one 
section  added  to  meet  the  present  aspect  of  public  affairs ;  that 
section  authorizes  the  President,  instead  of  pursuing  the  method 
prescribed  in  the  bill  in  reference  to  the  States  where  military 
resistance  shall  have  been  suppressed,  in  the  event  of  the  legis 
lative  authority  under  the  rebellion  in  any  rebel  State  taking  the 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  annulling 
their  confiscation  laws,  and  ratifying  the  amendment  proposed  by 
this  Congress  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  before  mil 
itary  resistance  shall  be  suppressed  in  such  State,  to  recognize 
them  as  constituting  the  legal  authority  of  the  State,  and  direct 
ing  him  to  report  those  facts  to  Congress  for  its  assent  and  ratifi 
cation. 

With  these  modifications,  the  bill,  which  is  now  the  test  for 
amendment,  is  the  bill  which  was  adopted  by  this  House  at  the 
last  session. 

I  shall  not  reflect  upon  the  gentlemen  of  this  House  so  far  as 
to  go  into  any  argument  to  prove  its  authority  to  do  what  this 
bill  proposes  to  do ;  its  vote  of  the  last  session  for  this  bill,  word 
for  word,  is  the  sufficient  proof  of  the  right  of  this  House  to 
adopt  it. 

It  is  only  the  House  itself  that  can  reverse  that  judgment,  and 
impeach  the  assertion  of  its  own  powers.  ISTor  need  I  trouble 
myself  to  answer  the  arguments  of  the  gentlemen  who  in  the  last 
session  voted  for  this  bill,  who,  in  the  quiet  and  repose  of  the  in 
tervening  period,  have  criticised  in  detail  the  language,  and,  not 
stopping  there,  have  found,  in  its  substance,  that  it  essentially  vio 
lates  the  principles  of  republican  government,  and  sanctions  the 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.       531 

enormities  of  the  laws  with  which  the  existence  of  slavery  has 
covered  and  defiled  the  statutes  of  every  rebel  State. 

That  these  discoveries  should  have  been  made  since  the  vote 
of  last  session,  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  that  they  should  have 
been  overlooked  before  that  vote.  But  they  were  neither  over 
looked  before,  nor  discovered  since.  The  vote  was  before  a  pend 
ing  election.  It  is  the  will  of  the  President  that  has  been  discov 
ered  since. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the  President,  hav 
ing  failed  to  sign  the  bill  passed  by  the  whole  body  of  his  sup 
porters  by  both  houses  at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  and  having 
assigned,  under  the  pressure  of  events,  but  without  the  authority 
of  the  law,  reasons,  good  or  bad,  first  for  refusing  to  allow  the  bill 
to  become  a  law,  and  therefore  usurping  power  to  execute  parts 
of  it 'as  law,  while  he  discarded  other  parts  which  interfered  with 
possible  electoral  votes,  those  arguments  should  be  found  satis 
factory  to  some  minds  prone  to  act  upon  the  winking  of  au 
thority. 

The  weight  of  that  species  of  argument  I  am  not  able  to  esti 
mate.  It  bids  defiance  to  every  species  of  reply.  It  is  that  subtle, 
pervading  epidemic  of  the  time  that  penetrates  the  closest  argu 
ment  as  spirit  penetrates  matter  that  diffuses  itself  with  the  at 
mosphere  of  authority,  relaxing  the  energy  of  the  strong,  bending 
down  the  upright,  diverting  just  men  from  the  path  of  rectitude, 
and  submitting  the  will  and  favor  of  the  power  for  the  will  and 
interest  of  the  people  as  the  rule  of  legislative  action. 

It  is  an  evil  which  can  be  remedied  only  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States  in  the  selection  of  their  representatives  ;  and  when 
they  send  representatives  here  of  stuff  impenetrable  to  that  subtle 
essence,  then  reason  and  not  the  executive  wishes  will  eliminate 
them  "on  the  merits  and  necessity  of  legislative  measures.  Till 
then  I  despair  of  reaching  the  source  of  their  conduct. 

All  I  desire  now  to  do  is  to  state  the  case,  and  predict  results 
from  one  course  to  the  other.  The  course  of  military  events 
seems  to  indicate  that  possibly  by  the  4th  of  next  July,  probably 
by  December,  organized  and  armed  rebellion  will  cease  to  lift  its 
brazen  head  in  the  land. 

Disasters  may  intervene,  errors  or  weaknesses  may  prolong  the 
conflict,  the  proverbial  chances  of  war  may  interpose  their  ca 
prices  to  defer  the  national  triumph,  but  events  now  point  to  the 


532       EECONSTEUCTION  OF  THE  KEBEL  STATES. 

near  approach  of  the  end.  But  whether  sooner  or  later,  when 
ever  it  comes,  there  is  one  thing  that  will  assuredly  accompany 
it.  If  this  bill  do  not  become  a  law,  when  Congress  again  meets, 
at  our  door,  clamorous  and  dictatorial,  will  be  sixty-five  repre 
sentatives  from  the  States  now  in  rebellion,  and  twenty-two  sen 
ators,  claiming  admission,  and,  upon  the  theory  of  the  honorable 
gentleman,  entitled  to  admission,  beyond  the  power  of  argument 
to  resist  it ;  for  peace  will  have  been  restored,  there  will  be  no 
armed  power  but  that  of  the  United  States,  there  will  be  quiet, 
and  votes  will  be  polled  under  the  existing  laws  of  the  State,  in 
the  gentleman's  views. 

Are  you  ready  to  accept  that  consequence  ?  For  if  they  come 
to  the  door  of  the  House,  they  will  cross  the  threshold  of  the 
House,  and  any  gentleman  who  does  not  know  that,  or  who  is  so 
weak  or  so  wild  as  to  suppose  that  any  declaratory  resolution 
adopted  by  both  Houses  as  a  condition  precedent  can  stop  that 
flood,  had  better  put  his  puny  hands  across  the  flowing  flood 
of  the  Mississippi  and  say  that  it  shall  not  enter  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 

There  are  things,  gentlemen,  that  are  possible  at  one  time,  and 
not  possible  at  another.  You  can  now  prevent  the  rise  of  the 
flood,  but  when  it  is  up  you  can  not  stop  it.  If  gentlemen  are  in 
favor  of  meeting  that  state  of  things,  then  do  as  has  been  so  dis 
tinctly  intimated  in  the  course  of  this  debate :  vote  against  this 
bill  in  all  its  aspects,  leave  the  door  wide  open,  and  let "  our  breth 
ren  of  the  South,"  whose  bayonets  are  now  pointed  at  our  broth 
ers'  hearts,  drop  their  arms,  put  on  the  seemly  garb  of  peace,  go 
through  the  forms  of  an  election,  and  assert  the  triumph  of  their 
beaten  faction  under  the  forms  of  political  authority,  after  the 
sword  has  decided  against  them.  I  am  no  prophet,  but  that  is 
the  history  of  next  December  if  this  bill  be  defeated,  and  I  ex 
pect  it  not  to  become  a  law. 

But  suppose  the  other  course  to  be  pursued.  Suppose  the 
President  sees  fit  to  do  what  there  is  not  the  least  reason  to  sup 
pose  that  he  desires  to  do ;  suppose  that  after  he  has  destroyed 
their  armies  in  the  field,  he  should  go  farther,  and  do,  as  I  think 
he  ought  to  do,  and  what  the  judgment  of  this  country  dictates: 
treat  those  who  hold  power  in  the  South  as  rebels,  and  not  as 
governors  and  legislators,  disperse  them  from  the  halls  of  legisla 
tion,  expel  them  from  executive  mansions,  strip  them  of  the  em- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.  533 

blems  of  authority,  and  set  to  work  to  find  out  the  pliant  and  sup 
ple  "Union  men,"  so  called,  who  have  cringed  before  the  storm, 
but  who  will  be  willing  to  govern  their  fellow-citizens  under  the 
protection  of  the  United  States  bayonets ;  suppose  that  the  fruit 
ful  example  of  Louisiana  shall  spread  like  a  mist  over  all  the  rest 
of  the  Southern  country,  and  that  representatives  like  what  Lou 
isiana  has  sent  here,  with  such  a  backing  of  votes  as  she  has 
given,  shall  appear  here  at  the  doors  of  this  hall,  whose  repre 
sentatives  are  they  ?  I  do  not  mean  to  speak  of  those  gentlemen 
now  here  from  Louisiana  in  their  individual  character,  but  in  their 
political  relations  to  their  constituency.  Whose  representatives 
are  they  ? 

In  Louisiana  they  are  the  representatives  of  the  bayonets  of 
General  Banks  and  the  will  of  the  President,  as  expressed  in  his 
secret  letter  to  General  Banks.  If  you  admit  such  representa 
tives,  you  must  admit,  on  the  same  basis  and  under  the  same  in 
fluences,  representatives  from  every  State  from  Virginia  to  Texas. 
The  Common  Council  of  Alexandria — which  has  just  sent  two 
senators  to  the  other  House,  and  has  ratified  the  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  abolishing  slavery  in  all  the  rest  of  Virginia, 
where  none  of  them  dare  put  his  portly  person — would  be  en 
titled  to  send  ten  representatives  here,  and  two  senators,  to  speak 
for  the  indomitable  "  Old  Dominion."  If  the  rebel  representa 
tives  are  not  here  in  December  next,  you  will  have  servile  tools 
of  the  executive,  who  will  embarrass  your  legislation',  humble 
your  Congress,  degrade  the  name  of  republican  government  for 
two  years,  and  then  the  natural  majority  of  the  South,  rising  in 
dignantly  against  that  humiliating  insult,  will  swamp  you  here 
with  rebel  representatives  and  be  your  masters.  These  are  the 
alternatives ;  there  is  no  middle  ground. 

To  meet  that  state  of  the  case,  the  honorable  gentleman  who  so 
ably  heads  the  Judiciary  Committee  [Mr.  Wilson]  has  proposed 
a  declaratory  resolution^  and  that  is  all — a  declaratory  resolution, 
with  no  provisions  of  law  to  execute  it,  with  no  power  to  arrest 
the  flood  at  our  door,  a  very  bubble  born  amid  the  hubbub  of 
the  waters,  and  floating  with  the  flood — that  senators  and  repre 
sentatives  shall  not  be  received  from  any  State  heretofore  declared 
in  rebellion,  until  a  joint  act  or  resolution  of  Congress  shall  have 
declared  that  they  have  organized  a  new  government. 

If  they  have  elected  their  representatives,  there  is  no  power 


534      RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

to  prevent  this  House  from  admitting  them,  if  they  see  fit  to 
do  it. 

I  hope  I  answer  the  gentleman  intelligibly.  But  if  such  an 
election  is  held  any  where  in  any  such  State,  it  is  an  assertion  of 
sovereign  power  without  authority  of  law — it  is  rebellion  itself; 
and  this  bill  directs  the  President  to  disperse  the  electors,  and 
prevent  the  election  being  held.  If  this  law  should  be  passed, 
and  the  President  should  sanction  such  an  election,  it  would  be 
an  impeachable  offense ;  and  if  he  did  not  sanction  it,  the  ques 
tion  would  never  be  here  to  trouble  us.  I  trust  I  have  answered 
the  gentleman  intelligibly.  Now  a  word  upon  the  criticisms  upon 
this  bill,  and  I  have  done.  Provisional  governors  are  to  be  ap 
pointed.  That  is  a  point  of  objection  to  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  [Mr.  Eliot],  who  first  spoke,  why  such  governors 
are  appointed  now  icithout  law ;  and  all  that  we  propose  is  that 
they  shall  be  under  the  responsibility  of  law,  and  subject  to  the  con 
trol  and  confirmation  of  the  Senate.  Provisional  governors  ille 
gally  appointed,  and  judges  of  provisional  courts  unknown  to  the 
law,  and  whose  appointments  have  never  been  submitted  to  the 
Senate,  are  now  usurping  authority  in  Louisiana.  The  very  land 
marks  of  the  law  are  swept  from  the  land ;  my  effort  is  to  restore 
them,  and  to  that  the  gentleman  objects. 

"Why,  sir,  suppose  this  bill  be  not  passed,  suppose  this  ma 
chinery  be  as  objectionable  as  the  gentleman  supposes,  what  is 
the  alternative  ?  The  President  remains  in  power,  with  no  law 
to  guide  him.  I  am  attempting  to  lay  down  a  law  for  his  guid 
ance.  The  gentlemen  prefer  arbitrary  will  to  a  written  law,  and 
they  can  not  avoid  that  statement  of  the  issue. 

Sir,  when  I  came  into  Congress  ten  years  ago,  this  was  a  gov 
ernment  of  law.  I  have  lived  to  see  it  a  government  of  personal 
will.  Congress  has  dwindled  from  a  power  to  dictate  law,  and 
the  policy  of  the  government  to  a  commission  to  audit  accounts 
and  appropriate  moneys,  to  enable  the  executive  to  execute  his 
will  and  not  ours.  I  would  stop  at  the  boundaries  of  law.  When 
I  look  around  for  them  I  seem  to  be  in  a  waste  ;  they  are  as  clean 
gone  as  the  division-fences  of  Virginia  estates  from  here  to  the 
Eapidan. 

But  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  said  yes 
terday  that  by  this  bill  we  are  reviving  the  hateful  black  laws  of 
the  South. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.       535 

I  drew  the  section  that  refers  to  that  subject,  and  I  am  content 
to  take  upon  my  shoulders  all  the  responsibility  connected  with 
the  revival  of  all  the  laws  that  are  revived  by  the  bill  which  I 
had  the  honor  at  the  last  session  to  report,  which  both  houses  of 
Congress  approved  by  their  votes,  which  to-day  I  am  here  to 
maintain ;  I  took  some  credit  to  myself  for  putting  in  a  brief  space 
the  shortest  possible  declaration  that  all  men  should  be  equal  be 
fore  the  law,  when  I  drew  the  clause  declaring  that  no  law  which 
recognizes  the  right  to  hold  men  in  involuntary  servitude  shall 
be  recognized,  and  that  the  laws  for  the  trial  and  punishment  of 
ivhite  persons  shall  apply  to  the  trial  and  punishment  of  all  per 
sons  whatever. 

I  had  ignorantly  supposed  that  if  the  negro  had  to  be  tried  by 
the  same  court,  under  the  same  law,  upon  the  same  evidence,  for 
the  same  crime,  for  no  other  crime,  upon  no  other  evidence,  and 
by  no  other  tribunal,  I  had  come  in  those  words  as  near  annihi 
lating  the  black  laws  of  the  South  as  gentlemen  could  have  done 
if  they  had  spent  tomes  in  writing  ou*t  the  provision  for  that 
purpose. 

But  in  order  to  meet  the  refined  criticism  of  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  upon  this  bill,  my  friend  from 
Ohio  [Mr.  Ashley]  put  our  heads  together,  and,  after  great  con 
tortions  of  the  brain,  we  thought  we  might  possibly  make  the 
effectiveness  of  the  law  visible  to  gentlemen  whose  eyes  had  failed 
to  discover  the  difficulties  of  the  law  of  the  last  session,  by  insert 
ing  before  the  words  "trial"  and  "punishment"  the  word  "gov 
ernment"  And  as  "government"  means  the  provisions  and  ex 
ecution  of  the  law  which  defines  the  rights  of  persons  and  prop 
erty,  and  other  responsibility  of- men  to  the  law,  I  take  it  that  the 
gentleman  will  withdraw  that  objection  now,  and  vote  for  the  bill, 
because  it  does  effectually,  and  even  to  his  satisfaction,  annul  the 
laws  to  which  he  has  objected. 

But,  says  the  gentleman  [Mr.  Dawes]  who  spoke  yesterday,  and 
the  one  who  spoke  several  days  ago  [Mr.  Eliot],  "There  is  no 
time  fixed  within  which  the  provisional  governor  must  call  upon 
the  people  to  elect  whether  they  will  organize  a  State  govern 
ment  or  not."  Certainly  not,  nor  can  there  be  any.  It  is  neces 
sarily  left  to  the  judgment  of  those  whom  we  charge  with  the 
execution  of  the  law.  If  the  President  shall  appoint  provisional 
governors  who  will  not  execute  his  bidding,  nor  take  his  word 


536  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

for  it  that  the  rebellion  is  suppressed,  and  that  the  people  have 
sufficiently  returned  to  their  allegiance,  then  there  is  no  remedy 
except  to  change  the  President,  and  that  remedy,  I  fear,  is  imprac 
ticable. 

I  take  the  men  we  find  in  power,  the  men  who  must  execute 
all  the  laws  we  pass,  if  they  be  executed  at  all,  but  the  real  griev 
ance  is  not  expressed.  I  prescribe  a  rule,  and  it  is  my  imposing 
any  rule  that  is  the  offense,  and  not  the  execution  of  it,  nor  any 
doubt  about  its  meaning,  still  less  the  uncertainty  of  its  beginning. 
There  is  no  uncertainty.  The  bill  says  there  shall  be  no  govern 
ment  organized  until  armed  resistance  is  suppressed,  and  the  peo 
ple  have  sufficiently  returned  to  their  allegiance,  the  test  of  which 
is  to  be,  that  a  majority  of  the  people  have  taken  the  simple  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But  there  are 
those  who  would  leave  one  tenth  of  the  people  govern  all  the 
world.  There  are  those  who  would  organize  into  oligarchies,  like 
the  Common  Council  of  Alexandria,  to  sack  the  blood  of  great 
States,  degrade  the  character,  and  exasperate  the  temper  of  the 
people  of  proud  commonwealths,  and  send  their  tools  here  to  leg 
islate  for  my  constituents.  Sir,  my  successor  may  vote  as  he 
pleases.  But,  when  I  leave  this  hall,  there  shall  be  no  vote  from 
the  Third  Congressional  District  of  Maryland  that  recognizes  any 
thing  but  the  body  and  mass  of  the  people  of  any  State  as  en 
titled  to  govern  them,  and  to  govern  the  people  that  I  represent. 
And  they  who  may  wish  to  substitute  one  tenth,  or  any  other 
fractional  minority,  for  that  great  power  of  the  people  to  govern, 
may  take,  and  shall  take,  the  odium.  Ay,  I  shall  brand  it  upon 
them  that,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  only 
free  republic  that  the  world  knows,  where  alone  the  principles  of 
popular  government  are  the  rules  of  authority,  they  have  gone  to 
the  Dark  Ages  for  their  models,  reviving  the  wretched  examples 
of  the  most  odious  governments  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and 
propose  to  stain  the  national  triumph  by  creating  a  low,  wretch 
ed,  vulgar,  corrupt,  and  cowardly  oligarchy  to  govern  the  free 
men  of  the  United  States — the  national  arms  to  guarantee  and 
enforce  their  oppressions ;  not  by  my  vote,  sir,  not  by  my  vote. 
If  the  majority  of  the  people  will  not  recognize  the  authority  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  what  does  the  gentleman 
say  who  proposes  these  declaratory  resolutions  ?  That  they  shall 
come  here  without  it  ?  No,  sir ;  but  I  would  govern  them  for  a 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.  537 

thousand  years  first  by  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  which 
they  have  defied,  and  will  not  acknowledge.  And  govern  them 
how  ?  Not  by  the  uncontrolled  will  of  this  or  any  other  Presi 
dent  that  ever  lived,  George  Washington  included.  I  would 
govern  them  by  the  laws  that  in  the  hours  of  their  sanity  they 
enacted,  unaltered,  excepting  so  far  as  the  progress  of  events  re 
quire  that  they  should  be  altered,  to  the  extent  we  have  proposed 
to  alter  them  in  the  bill,  and  no  farther.  I  leave  their  own  rules 
for  their  government — make  the  President  appoint,  under  his  offi 
cial  and  public  responsibility,  the  officers  who  are  to  execute  them ; 
and  if  they  do  not  like  to  be  governed  in  that  way,  let  us  trust 
that  the  prodigal  will  one  day  come  to  his  senses,  and,  humbly 
kneeling  before  the  Constitution  that  he  vainly  defied,  swear  be 
fore  Almighty  God  that  he  will  again  be  true  to  it. 

That  is  my  remedy  for  the  grievance,  that  is  what  we  propose. 
It  is  for  this  House  to  say  whether  it  prefers  arbitrary  discretion 
or  legal  rule ;  whether  it  prefers  that  anarchy  shall  reign,  or  that 
law  shall  be  supreme ;  whether  it  prefers  that  we  shall  be  overrun 
by  men  who  do  not  recognize  the  government,  and  who  yet  insist 
on  taking  part  in  our  legislation,  or  whether  it  will  erect  a  barrier 
now  at  this  time  to  prevent  the  question  being  forced  on  our  suc 
cessors,  who,  wiser,  it  may  be  firmer,  better  republicans  than  we, 
will,  from  the  mere  fact  of  the  pressure  of  the  times  and  the  clam 
or  of  the  day,  be  absolutely  incompetent  to  deal  with  those  things 
which  we  now,  before  the  event,  can  calmly  and  deliberately  adju 
dicate.  Sir,  I  have  done. 

A  motion  was  then  made  to  lay  the  bill  and  amendments  on  the  ta 
ble,  which  was  carried  by  91  to  G4— 27  not  voting.  A  motion  to  re 
consider  this  vote  was  laid  on  the  table  by  92  to  57.  So  the  bill  was 
finally  disposed  of. 


SPEECH  ON  PROPOSING  AN  AMENDMENT 
TO  THE  MISCELLANEOUS  BILL  PROHIBIT 
ING  THE  TRIAL  OP  CITIZENS  BY  MILL 
TARY  COMMISSIONS. 

THE  trials  of  citizens  by  military  commissions,  especially  within  the 
States  not  in  rebellion,  where  the  courts  of  the  United  States  were  open, 
had  from  the  beginning  been  opposed  by  Mr.  Davis.  lie  had,  as  early 
as  December,  1861,  in  his  speech  at  Brooklyn,  protested  against  such 
misuse  of  power  as  tending  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  enemies  of  the 
government,  and  to  bring  the  administration  into  disrepute  through  an 
implied  avowal  on  its  part  that  the  laws  of  the  land  did  not  provide  an 
adequate  remedy  and  punishment  for  those  offenders,  in  favor  of  whom 
their  mere  trial  by  a  military  commission  raised  a  sympathy,  and  the  de 
sire  to  relieve  which  inseparable  from  a  view  of  oppression. 

At  the  close  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  (March  2, 18G5),  when  the 
Miscellaneous  Appropriation  Bill  was  on  its  final  passage,  Mr.  Davis 
moved  an  amendment  thereto  (given  below)  prohibiting  such  trials,  and 
spoke  in  support  of  his  proposition  as  set  forth  in  the  following  speech, 
being  the  last  delivered  by  him  in  Congress : 

SKC.  — .  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  person  shall  be  tried  by  court-martia1, 
or  military  commission,  in  any  State  or  Territory  where  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  are  open,  except  persons  actually  mustered,  or  commissioned,  or  appointed 
in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States,  or  rebel  enemies  charged  with 
being  spies ;  and  all  proceedings  heretofore  had  contrary  to  this  provision  are  de 
clared  vacated  ;  and  all  persons  not  subject  to  trial,  under  this  act,  by  court-martial 
or  military  commission,  now  held  under  sentence  thereof,  shall  be  forthwith  dis 
charged  or  delivered  to  the  civil  authorities,  to  be  proceeded  against  before  the 
courts  of  the  United  States  according  to  law.  And  all  acts  inconsistent  herewith 
are  hereby  repealed. 

I  wish  to  say  merely  a  few  words  in  explanation  of  this  amend 
ment. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  desire,  at  this  period  of  the  session,  to 
detain  the  House  even  by  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  amend 
ment  I  have  submitted.  I  desire  to  state  merely  what  it  contem 
plates,  and  to  beg  the  House  to  give  a  direct  vote  upon  it.  It  is 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.  539 

a  measure  which  touches  the  very  foundation  of  republican  gov 
ernment,  the  liberty  of  the  citizen,  nothing  more,  nothing  less. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  exclusively,  perhaps  not  chiefly,  the  fault 
of  those  in  authority  that  military  commissions  have  tried,  con 
trary  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  many  of 
its  citizens.  It  began  first  in  the  rebel  States,  then  spread  to  the 
border  States,  the  theatre  of  armed  conflicts,  then  invaded  Penn 
sylvania,  Indiana,  and  New  York,  amid  the  general  acclaim  of  the 
people;  and  now  that  it  reaches  as  far  north  as  Boston,  we  hear 
the  first  murmur  of  its  advocates  or  instigators.  What  that  amend 
ment  contemplates  is,  not  to  cast  imputation  upon  any  administra 
tion  or  any  officer,  but,  recognizing  the  error  which  the  people,  as 
well  as  the  government,  have  in  common  committed  against  the 
foundation  of  their  own  safety,  now,  before  the  very  idea  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  law  has  faded  from  the  country,  to  restore  it  to 
its  power. 

This  amendment  is  confined  rigidly  to  the  loyal  States,  to  the 
States  in  which  the  courts  of  the  United  States  are  open,  to  the 
States  whose  governments  the  United  States  guarantee,  so  that  it 
does  not  strip  the  government  of  any  power,  legal  or  usurped, 
which  it  has  thought  necessary  in  its  efforts  to  suppress  the  re 
bellion.  It  leaves  every  body  to  be  tried  by  court-martial  who  is 
actually  in  the  military  service  of  the  government,  or  who,  being 
a  rebel  enemy,  is  arrested  as  a  spy.  But  it  annuls  every  thing 
that  has  been  done  heretofore  under  illegal  military  commissions, 
directs  all  persons  now  in  illegal  confinement  under  sentence  of 
illegal  military  commissions  to  be  either  discharged,  or  delivered 
to  the  civil  tribunals,  to  be  there  proceeded  against  according  to 
law.  There  the  amendment  stops. 

I  desire  to  make  an  imputation  on  no  one.  This  amendment 
is  proposed  for  the  benefit  of  every  party  and  of  every  adminis 
tration  ;  and  I  trust  that  the  House  will  allow  it  to  be  incorporated 
into  this  bill,  that  it  may  become  the  acknowledged,  as  it  is  now 
the  supreme,  law  of  this  land  and  the  right  of  the  citizen. 

Tellers  were  ordered  ;  and  Messrs.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  and  Davis, 
of  Maryland,  were  appointed. 

The  committee  divided  ;  and  the  tellers  reported — ayes,  50  ;  nays,  Co. 

So  the  decision  of  the  Chair  was  not  sustained. 

The  question  was  upon  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Davis,  of  Maryland, 
who  spoke  as  follows  : 


540  AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  appreciate  the  weight  of  the  criticism  of  the 
distinguished  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens],  and  I 
am  sure  that  nobody  will  say  that  I  have  ever  embarrassed  the 
proceedings  of  this  House  by  any  pertinacious  adherence  to 
schemes  of  my  own.  I  have  never  embarrassed  the  House  week 
after  week  by  motions  to  tax  or  exempt  whisky  on  hand.  That 
would  have  been  a  more  appropriate  subject  of  criticism  than 
such  an  amendment  as  this,  which  is  never  too  early,  and  can 
never  be  too  late,  until  the  voice  of  liberty  shall  cease  to  be  heard 
in  the  United  States.  Then  it  will  be  impertinent  to  arrest  the 
progress  of  supplies  for  the  government  by  calling  the  attention 
of  the  representatives  of  the  people  to  the  freedom  of  their  con 
stituents.  Let  this  bill  perish  a  thousand  times  rather  than  that 
any  vote  should  go  on  the  records  of  this  House  declaring  that 
the  protection  of  the  liberties  of  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts  and 
citizens  of  Maryland  are  not  of  paramount  importance  to  a  vote 
of  money  for  the  violators  of  their  rights.  There  has  been  no 
other  period,  sir,  at  which  I  could  obtain  the  ear  of  the  House  on 
such  an  amendment.  I  have  had  my  eye  on  the  gradual  intru 
sion  of  the  military  authority  on  the  rights  of  the  citizen  from  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion.  It  was  first  instigated  by  the  people ; 
and  the  most  eminent  jurists  of  the  land  converted  their  clamor 
into  the  semblance  of  the  voice  of  the  law  by  maintaining  the 
right  of  the  President  to  suspend  the  habeas  corpus  without  the 
authority  of  Congress — in  the  face  of  John  Marshall's  judgment 
Gentlemen  of  the  opposition,  on  this  topic,  have  no  right  here  to 
cast  imputations  on  the  administration.  George  B.  M'Clellan  first 
set  the  bad  example  in  an  order  illegally  suspending  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  in  Maryland.  I  refer  to  that  not  as  an  imputation 
on  them,  but  because  it  shows  that  it  is  no  party  question  with 
which  we  are  dealing  to-day,  but  an  American  question,  a  ques 
tion  of  republican  liberty  endangered  by  the  common  madness  of 
government  and  people.  The  evil  has  gone  so  far  that  to-day 
every  man  feels,  without  the  necessity  of  an  argument,  that  there 
must  be  a  stop  put  to  military  trials  of  citizens  in  the  States  here 
represented,  or  there  is  no  law  or  liberty  in  the  land. 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  has  said  that 
these  convictions  have  taken  place  under  laws  passed  by  Con 
gress.  I  admit  it  in  some  cases ;  but  that  proves  only  that  Con 
gress  is  also  guilty  of  the  usurpation.  And  the  honorable  gen- 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.    541 

tleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Dawes]  has  told  us  that  the  law 
which  he  introduced  has  failed  to  serve  the  purpose  contemplated, 
while  it  has  developed  consequences  of  which  he  did  not  dream. 
The  honorable  gentleman  says  that  it  ought  to  be  repealed ;  and 
if  it  ought  to  be  repealed,  then  carry  the  remedy  to  the  root  of 
the  grievance,  and  discharge  the  men  who  were  convicted  under 
what  was  in  form  a  law,  but  in  fact  a  usurpation  which  had  not 
the  authority  of  the  Constitution. 

But,  sir,  have  prosecutions  stopped  within  the  limits  of  the  acts 
of  Congress  ?  If  they  had,  I  could  have  heard  with  more  patience 
the  appeal  of  my  honorable  friend  from  Pennsylvania.  But  every 
one  knows  that  they  have  not.  We  in  Maryland  have  known  it 
by  sharp  castigation  now  for  three  years.  It  is  now  being  known 
in  New  York.  And  in  Boston  men  have  turned  gray  under  per 
secutions  not  according  to  those  laws. 

But,  sir,  what  do  you  say  of  trials  for  things  that  are  not  crimes 
under  any  law,  for  things  that  are  not  defined  to  be  crimes,  civil 
or  military  ?  What  do  you  say  to  the  trial  of  a  loyal  citizen  in 
the  city  of  Baltimore  upon  the  charges  and  specifications  which  I 
hold  in  my  hands,  for  forging  Jefferson  Davis's  currency  ?  One 
of  my  constituents  is  now  in  jail  under  those  specifications,  having 
been  tried  and  condemned  by  a  military  tribunal  for  attempting 
to  break  down  the  rebel  currency!  I  can  state  no  other  fact  that 
will  better  illustrate  the  insolence  of  irresponsible  military  tribu 
nals,  known  to  no  law,  appointed  under  no  law,  restrained  by  no 
law,  authorized  by  nobody,  bound  by  no  law  but  the  will  of  the 
men  who  sit  in  their  uniforms  to  try  the  rights  of  American  citi 
zens  according  to  the  law  of  the  sword. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  Do  I  understand  the  gentleman  to  say  that  this 
man  was  convicted  on  the  ground  of  having  counterfeited  rebel 
currency  ? 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  He  was  condemned  for  that,  and  is 
now  in  jail. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  Well,  I  think  that  a  man  who  was  fool  enough 
to  spend  his  time  in  such  work  ought  to  suffer  some  severe  pun 
ishment. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  If  all  fools  are  at  the  mercy  of  the 
military  courts,  and  they  are  to  judge  of  it,  they  have  a  wide  ju 
risdiction..  (Laughter.) 

Then  there  is  the  case  of  Weisenfield.     This  man  was  not 


542  AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPKOPEIATION  BILL. 

charged  with  defrauding  the  government  under  the  act  of  Con 
gress;  he  never  placed  himself  within  the  reach  of  the  law  to 
which  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  has  referred.  He  was 
charged,  and  in  my  judgment  charged  falsely,  and  convicted  on 
testimony  which  no  jury  in  the  world,  of  any  political  complex 
ion,  would  weigh  an  instant,  of  having  sold  a  few  hundred  dollars' 
worth  of  goods  to  a  government  spy  to  be  sent  across  the  lines  to 
the  Southern  Confederacy.  That  trial  by  military  commission 
was  authorized  by  no  law  known  to  any  statute-book  in  the 
United  States.  The  crime  of  trading  with  the  rebel  States  is 
punishable  by  law  only  as  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy, 
and  that  is  expressly  directed  to  be  tried  and  punished  by  indict 
ment  before  the  United  States  courts  for  a  misdemeanor  merely ; 
but  he  now  lies  in  a  New  York  penitentiary,  herding  with  felons, 
murderers,  and  thieves,  though,  if  legally  convicted  before  Chief 
Justice  Chase,  he  could  by  law  have  been  sentenced  only  to  fine 
and  imprisonment  in  jail ! 

I  am  daily  beset  by  letters  and  solicitations  of  loyal  gentlemen, 
my  firmest  and  best  personal  friends  in  the  world,  to  go  to  the 
President  and  beg  as  a  boon  that  this  man  be  pardoned!  I  have 
had  no  stronger  pressure  brought  upon  me  since  I  have  been  in 
public  life.  My  reply  is,  If  a  petition  is  gotten  up  for  Mr.  Weis- 
enfield  to  pardon  the  President  for  his  illegal  oppression,  I  will 
sign  it;  but  I  will  not  degrade  the  name  of  an  American  citizen 
by  signing  a  petition  to  beg  as  a  favor  the  personal  liberty  of  an 
American  citizen,  illegally  and  oppressively  condemned  by  a  mil 
itary  commission,  and  that  at  the  hands  of  the  President,  who 
twice  refused  to  refer  his  case  to  the  courts  of  the  United  States, 
wide  open  for  his  protection,  and  in  the  face  of  the  laws  and  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  subjected  him  to  this  illegal  perse 
cution. 

Sir,  let  him  stay  where  he  is  till  the  voice  of  public  indignation 
or  the  whispers  of  conscience  compel  his  honorable  discharge— 
not  his  pardon.  Till  they  who  illegally  confined  him  shall  beg 
him  to  come  forth. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  alarming  fact  is  this — military  commissions 
do  not  even  profess  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  enacted  by  Congress.  They  have  created  a  department  of 
jurisprudence  unknown  to  the  'laws  of  the  United  States,  no 
where  embodied  in  statutes  or  decisions,  called  the  "  customs  of 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPEOPKIATION  BILL.    5-iS 

war."  They  try  loyal  men  in  loyal  States,  where  no  war  rages, 
for  a  violation  of  what  they  call  "  the  usages  of  war.'1'1  Here  are  the 
pandects  of  the  future  empire  of  the  United  States — the  rulings  of  the 
Judge  Advocate  General  on  "  the  usages  and  customs  of  war," 
applied  to  peaceful  citizens  in  loyal  States  where  the  courts  are 
open,  where  the  law  alone  ought  to  be  the  rule  of  every  judgment 
and  every  conviction. 

This  invention  of  the  law  of  "  the  usages  of  war"  and  "  military 
offenses,"  applied  to  citizens  and  friends  instead  of  enemies,  annuls 
every  act  of  Congress. 

In  vain  does  the  act  of  the  3d  of  March,  1863,  punish  the  aid 
ing  a  soldier  to  desert  by  one  not  in  the  military  service  on  legal 
conviction  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States ;  in  vain  does  the 
act  of  the  3d  of  March,  1863,  punish  fraudulent  claims,  false  oaths, 
forged  signatures,  forging  papers,  embezzling  United  States  prop 
erty,  false  receipts  for  arms,  purchasing  arms  from  soldiers,  when 
committed  by  a  person  in  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States, 
on  conviction  by  court-martial,  and  at  the  discretion  of  the  court- 
martial,  but  in  the  third  section  declares  that  any  person  not  in  the 
military  forces  of  the  United  States  guilty  of  those  acts  shall  for 
feit  certain  fines  and  be  subject  to  certain  imprisonment  on  con 
viction  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States ;  for  the  military  com 
missions  presume  to  punish  every  one  of  these  acts  committed  by 
citizens  in  defiance  of  the  law  securing  them  a  constitutional  trial. 

By  the  act  of  the  2d  of  March,  1831,  forging  pay  certificates  is 
punishable  by  the  courts  of  the  United  States  in  the  District  of 
Columbia ;  yet  a  military  commission  punishes  it  within  sight  of 
the  open  court-house  and  of  the  President's  mansion ! 

In  vain  the  act  of  March  3, 1863,  expressly  directs  a  person 
guilty  of  resisting  the  draft  to  be  arrested  by  the  provost-marshal 
and  to  be  forthwith  delivered  to  the  civil  authorities,  and,  on  con 
viction  by  them,  subjects  him  to  fine  and  imprisonment;  the  mil 
itary  commissions  have  annulled  that  law,  and,  instead  of  deliver 
ing  the  person  to  the  civil  authorities  for  trial,  themselves  hold 
and  try,  convict  and  punish  him ;  and  this  where  the  courts  of  the 
United  States  are  wide  open,  in  this  district  where  Congress  sits 
in  peace  and  enacts  the  laws  which  are  thus  defied ! 

If  these  things  be  not  arrested,  there  is  no  law  but  the  sword, 
no  judge  but  the  majority  of  a  military  commission  holding  their 
commission  at  the  will  of  the  President. 


5-M    AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

Now,  sir,  I  have  a  word  for  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr. 
Yeaman],  who  moved  to  include  persons  engaged  in  violating  the 
rules  and  customs  of  war.  Does  that  mean  citizens  of  the  United 
States  in  loyal  States,  where  the  courts  of  the  United  States  are 
open,  where  their  act  is  treason,  for  which  the  statutes  of  the 
United  States  say  they  shall  be  tried,  on  indictment,  before  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  and  who,  the  Constitution  says,  shall 
be  tried  no  otherwise  than  by  a  jury  of  the  State  and  district  in 
which  the  crime  was  committed,  and  convicted  only  on  the  testi 
mony  of  two  witnesses  ? 

If  it  is  notorious  that  they  are  guerrillas,  why,  in  the  name  of 
conscience  and  common  sense,  can  not  that  be  made  to  appear  to 
a  jury  of  their  loyal  fellow-citizens,  to  be  summoned  by  a  marshal 
appointed  by  the  President  himself;  prosecuted  by  a  district  at 
torney  that  he  appoints;  adjudged  by  judges  who  hold  their  office 
during  life ;  many  of  them  now  even  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  all  liable  to  impeachment  by  us  and  conviction  by  the  Senate 
if  not  fit  to  administer  justice?  If  it  be  a  matter  of  doubt,  then 
the  prisoners  are  entitled  to  that  doubt ;  and  if  it  is  so  plain  that 
there  is  no  doubt,  then  any  tribunal  will  convict.  That  is  my 
answer  to  that  proposed  amendment. 

In  the  first  place,  if  three  fourths  of  the  State  of  Kentucky  are 
subject  to  incursions  of  guerrillas,  the  other  fourth  is  not,  and  that 
will  furnish  jurors  enough.  If  there  is  room  to  hold  a  military 
court  there  is  room  to  hold  a  civil  court.  If  men  are  not  afraid 
to  go  to  testify  before  a  military  court  they  will  not  be  afraid  to 
go  before  a  civil  court.  If  bayonets  are  needed  to  protect  them 
before  a  military  court,  bayonets  can  protect  them  before  a  civil 
court.  Sir,  this  hankering  after  military  courts  is  not  because  they 
can  not  be  tried  and  convicted  before  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  if  guilty ;  but  men  mad  with  civil  war  want  a  sharper  and 
easier  way  to  deal  with  criminals  as  enemies.  It  is  the  cry  for 
vengeance  and  not  justice!  That  is  what  it  is,  and  nothing  else. 

I  live  in  a  State  that  has  never  disgraced  itself  by  rebellion, 
but  it  has  been  disturbed  by  internal  dissensions ;  and  I  know 
the  rancorous  hostility  which  has  grown  up  between  men  even  of 
the  same  family.  I  do  not  wish  military  tribunals  to  apply  their 
harsh,  sharp  vengeance  between  men  who  live  on  adjacent  estates, 
at  the  instigation  of  personal  revenge,  of  malice,  without  local 
public  trial,  unprotected  by  the  rights  secured  to  them  by  the 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.   545 

Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  when  a  whispered  lie 
may  stain  innocence  with  the  penitentiary  by  the  vote  of  two  out 
of  three  of  a  military  commission.  If  they  have  committed  acts 
which  render  them  dangerous,  but  are  not  criminal  or  can  not  be 
proved,  we  have  authorized  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus, 
and  the  President  can  hold  them ;  not  try,  not  convict,  not  dis 
grace,  not  degrade,  not  kill,  but  hold  them  under  the  precaution 
ary  discretion  conferred  by  law,  and  rendered  secure  by  the  mili 
tary  power.  If  they  have  committed  crimes  known  to  the  law 
which  can  be  proved,  and  which  it  is  desirable  to  punish,  the 
President  can  prove  it  before  the  courts  of  the  United  States  in 
Maryland,  and  they  can  be  convicted  in  the  courts  of  the  United 
States  in  Maryland. 

Now  a  word  touching  the  amendment  of  my  honorable  friend 
from  Ohio  [Mr.  Schenck],  with  whom  I  always  differ  with  the 
greatest  hesitation.  Yet  I  think  that  his  logic  will  bring  him  to 
this  conclusion,  that  if  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  says 
that  no  one  shall  be  tried  for  an  infamous  crime  otherwise  than 
by  a  jury  of  the  State  and  district,  except  cases  arising  in  the  mili 
tary  or  naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  any  enactment  which  au 
thorizes  any  one  to  be  tried  in  any  other  way  in  the  States  where 
United  States  courts  are  open  is  itself  void.  The  tribunal  which 
tries  a  case  not  arising  in  the  military  forces  in  any  other  way  is  a 
trespasser,  and  the  party  who  was  convicted  has  a  private  remedy 
for  the  injury  he  has  sustained  if  the  court  had  no  jurisdiction. 
ISTo  one  can  violate  the  right  of  the  citizen  to  immunity  from  mili 
tary  trial  safely,  whether  we  declare  it  or  not,  and  every  one  has 
his  remedy  to-day  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  in  spite  of 
any  enactment,  for  every  oppression. 

Why,  then,  place  a  provision  in  the  law  declaring  these  pro 
ceedings  to  be  void  ?  In  order  that  a  loud  voice  should  go  out 
from  this  hall  to  the  American  people,  ringing  over  the  land,  to 
announce  by  authority  that  their  representatives  recognize  and 
declare  the  nullity  of  the  proceedings  of  these  military  tribunals, 
and  to  encourage  the  people  to  seek  redress  in  the  courts  of  the 
country,  not  by  crawling  solicitations  at  the  hands  of  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  but  of  right,  by  law,  before  the  courts, 
which  are  the  glory  and  the  safety  of  the  American  republic. 

My  honorable  friend  also  wishes  me  to  strike  out  that  part  of 
my  amendment  which  provides  that  those  not  liable  to  trial  by 

MM 


546    AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

military  courts  now  held  under  their  sentences  should  be  dis 
charged,  or  delivered  to  the  civil  tribunals  for  trial.  Sir,  if  it  will 
satisfy  any  gentleman  here,  or  remove  any  doubt  or  hesitation,  I 
will  most  cheerfully  agree  that  the  word  u  discharge"  shall  be 
stricken  out ;  so  that  the  provision  will  stand  that  these  men  shall 
be  delivered  over  to  the  civil  tribunals  to  be  proceeded  against 
according  to  law — the  American's  birthright. 

But  it  is  objected  by  my  honorable  friend  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Schenck]  that  these  men,  having  first  disputed  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  military  court,  will,  when  brought  before  a  civil  court,  plead 
their  former  conviction  in  bar.  I  know  the  eminent  legal  ability 
of  my  friend,  and  if  he  will  run  over  in  his  mind  the  form  of  plea 
that  must  be  made  in  such  a  case,  he  would  find  that  it  would  be 
this :  On  a  given  day,  at  a  given  place,  before  A,  B,  C,  a  military 
commission  convened  by  order  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  I,  a  citizen  not  in  the  military  service  of  the  United  States, 
was  convicted  for  a  violation  of  "the  usages  of  war,"  or  some 
crime  known  to  the  law,  but  punishable  by  statute  only  in  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  and  sentenced  to  punishment.  My 
learned  friend  would  be  the  first  to  put  in  a  demurrer  to  such  a 
plea.  On  the  record  it  would  appear  that  the  military  commis 
sion  had  no  jurisdiction  of  the  party ;  that  he  had  not  been  con 
victed  at  all ;  that  he  had  never  been  in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb ; 
for  the  Constitution  forbids  such  a  tribunal  to  try  such  a  person. 
The  jurisdiction  of  every  court,  especially  one  of  limited  and  ex 
ceptional  jurisdiction,  may  be  impeached  collaterally,  or  must  ap 
pear  on  its  record ;  and  the  appearance  of  generals,  and  colonels, 
and  captains,  sitting  at  the  will  of  the  President,  in  place  of  ven 
erable  judges,  whose  tenure  is  good  behavior,  and  the  absence  of 
a  jurjr,  show  that  it  is  not  a  court  at  all,  but  an  unlawful  combina 
tion  of  trespassers  usurping  the  functions  of  a  court,  guilty  of  a 
crime,  and  not  exercising  an  authority.  Any  court  of  the  United 
States  will,  on  habeas  corpus^  discharge  a  citizen  confined  under 
sentence  of  such  a  tribunal. 

Let  those  now  in  illegal  confinement  seek  that  remedy ;  and  if 
it  be  denied  them,  let  an  impeachment  by  the  representatives  of 
the  people  vindicate  the  rights  of  the  people, 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  public  safety  never  has  required  these  illegal 
and  summary  trials ;  it  now  requires  that  they  cease.  The  past 
men  are  ready  to  forget,  the  American  people  most  of  all ;  they 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.   547 

instigated  or  tolerated  the  usurpations  of  those  in  authority ;  but 
they  now  have  felt  the  sharpness  of  military  justice,  and  demand 
of  their  rulers  a  return  to  the  Constitution  and  laws.  If  hereto 
fore  they  have  violated  the  law  and  Constitution — I  do  not  say 
criminally,  I  do  not  say  with  intent  to  oppress,  I  do  not  say  even 
knowing  it  to  be  criminal — it  was  the  common  error ;  and  they 
may  plead  the  error  of  the  people  which  misled  the  leaders  of 
the  people  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion.  More  firmness,  more 
knowledge,  more  coolness  in  high  places,  might  perhaps  have  ar 
rested  the  popular  current,  and  silenced  the  popular  tumult,  and 
kept  the  torrent  within  the  bounds  of  law.  It  was  not  found  in 
places  of  authority ;  all  bowed  before  the  storm ;  all  floated  with 
the  current.  It  is  in  the  power  of  the  representatives  of  the 
American  people  alone  to  stop  it  before  every  vestige  of  Ameri 
can  liberty  is  buried  beneath  the  waters. 

Sir,  I  am  not  willing  to  change  one  word  of  my  amendment. 
It  was  not  framed  out  of  my  own  head,  of  my  old-fashioned 
whims  and  fancies,  now  out  of  fashion  in  this  era  of  gold  lace 
and  military  vertigo.  I  had  frequent  consultations  with  some  of 
the  ablest  members  upon  this  side  of  the  House,  those  most  con 
spicuous  for  the  ardor  of  their  support  of  the  administration,  and 
they  think  with  me  that  obstinate  adherence  to  these  abuses  must 
destroy  either  the  administration  or  the  republic.  If  it  would 
satisfy  any  one  to  strike  out  the  word  "  discharge,"  I  have  no  ob 
jection,  because  an  American  citizen  is  safe  when  delivered  into 
the  custody  of  the  civil  authorities,  to  be  proceeded  against  ac 
cording  to  law ;  but  beyond  that  I  do  not  feel  disposed  to  modify 
my  amendment  in  any  particular. 

Least  of  all  can  I  accept  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from 
Iowa  [Mr.  Kasson],-  which  enumerates  the  offenses  for  which  citi 
zens  shall  not  be  tried  by  military  courts,  and  yields  the  whole 
principle  by  admitting  that  persons  not  in  the  military  forces,  in 
the  States  where  the  United  States  courts  are  open,  may  be  tried 
for  violating  the  "  usages  and  customs  of  war ;"  it  recognizes  the 
category  of  military  offenses  committed  by  a  citizen,  an  exception 
which  would  place  your  liberty  and  life,  and  mine,  at  the  beck 
and  call,  at  the  wrill  and  pleasure  of  any  military  commission  of 
officers  too  worthless  for  field  service,  ordered  to  try  us,  and  "or 
ganized  to  convict"  That  amendment  involves  a  total  misappre 
hension  of  the  whole  question.  It  is  not  what  offenses  military 


548  AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

courts  may  try,  but  what  persons  they  may  try  for  any  offense. 
The  Constitution  forbids  them  to  try  any  citizen  for  any  offense. 

I  will  not  detain  the  House  by  narrating  the  individual  cases 
of  oppression  that  are  fresh  in  my  memory.  There  is  no  gentle 
man  who  does  not  know  of  such  cases  in  his  own  neighborhood, 
and  who  has  not  felt  this  atmosphere  of  oppression  around  him. 
If  there  be,  they  are  happier  than  we  are  in  Maryland,  or  than 
they  are  in  Massachusetts. 

This  measure  is  demanded  by  the  feeling  of  the  country,  and 
in  my  judgment,  if  the  House  will  now  say  that  the  liberty  of  the 
American  citizen  is  of  equal  moment  with  the  Miscellaneous  Ap 
propriation  Bill,  and  will  pronounce  by  such  a  vote  as  that  by 
which  it  referred  the  resolution  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York 
[Mr.  Gansori],  with  only  three  dissenting  voices,  to  the  Military 
Committee,  that  law  is  still  supreme,  every  man  in  the  United 
States  will  breathe  freer,  and  bear  himself  more  loftily,  and  look 
with  assured  joy  to  the  day  when  armed  rebellion  shall  be  de 
stroyed,  to  be  followed,  not  by  armed  despotism,  but  by  the  peace 
ful  reign  of  liberty  and  law;  by  submission,  but  not  by  servitude. 
(Applause  on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries.) 

Mr.  FARXSWORTH.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  rise  for  the  purpose  of  op 
posing  these  amendments.  In  desperate  emergencies  vigorous 
measures  are  required.  I  am  here  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining 
with  my  voice  and  vote  those  measures  adopted  and  put  in  force 
by  the  War  Department  in  the  punishment  of  culprits  in  any 
manner  connected  with  the  army.  The  gentleman  from  Mary 
land  [Mr.  Davis]  has  dilated  largely  on  those  things  that  have  oc 
curred  in  his  own  State.  He  has  referred  to  the  act  of  General 
M'Clellan.  It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  say  here  that  that 
act  of  his  rendered  his  name  more  popular,  brought  him  into  more 
favor,  and  attracted  to  him  more  of  the  affection  of  the  people  of 
the  country  than  any  other  act  of  his  life.  Is  it  not  well  known 
that  when  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  Maryland  Legislature,  that 
Legislature  was  convened  for  the  very  purpose  of  hurrying  the 
State  into  secession  and  involving  it  in  civil  war  ?  The  gentle 
man  refers  to  the  arrests  made  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  in 
Maryland.  Has  not  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Yeaman] 
told  us  that  in  many  counties  in  his  own  district  the  civil  law 
could  not  be  enforced;  that  they  have  neither  judges  nor  jurors 
who  will  enforce  it,  nor  court-houses  in  which  to  hold  their  courts  ; 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.  549 

that  they  have  been  burned  by  secessionists  ?  So  it  was  in  the 
city  of  Baltimore  up  to  within  two  years  since.  I  believe  that 
two  years  ago  a  rebel  could  not  be  convicted  in  any  court  in  that 
city.  Those  vigorous  measures  of  the  President  and  of  the  "War 
Department  are  what  saved  Maryland  from  civil  war  and  the 
country  from  destruction. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  The  gentleman  will  allow  me  to  sa}r 
that  there  would  be  more  fear  that  a  disloyal  man  could  not  have 
a  fair  trial  in  Maryland  before  a  civil  court,  so  intense  is  the  de 
sire  to  punish  any  thing  looking  like  treason. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  That  may  be  now,  and  is  a  very  healthy 
feeling,  but  two  years  ago  it  was  not  so. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  There  was  never  a  moment,  sir,  in 
which  it  was  not  so. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  There  was  a  moment,  sir,  when  any  thing 
looking  to  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  was  very  unpopular  in 
Baltimore.  There  was  a  time  when  both  the  civil  and  military 
arms  of  the  government  were  powerless  to  preserve  peace  and  or 
der  in  the  gentleman's  own  city.  There  was  a  time  when  Massa 
chusetts  soldiers,  marching  peacefully  through  that  city  to  the  res 
cue  and  defense  of  the  capital,  were  ruthlessly  set  upon  by  the 
mob  of  secessionists,  and  murdered  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  and 
there  was  no  power  there  to  suppress  the  riot.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  authorities  of  Maryland,  through  their  governor,  made 
application  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  that  no  more 
troops  should  pass  over  the  soil  of  Maryland,  because  the  civil 
and  military  power  of  that  State  could  not  preserve  order.  With 
out  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus,  and  without  the  vigorous 
measures  put  in  force  by  the  government,  where  would  that  State 
be  to-day  ?  Probably  in  the  Union,  but  she  would  have  been  the 
seat  of  war,  and  her  fair  fields  would  have  been  desolated  as  are 
now  the  fair  fields  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  to  cor 
rect  him  ? 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  Certainly. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  desire  to  say  that  there  never  was 
a  day  when  the  people  of  Maryland  were  not  masters  of  her  for 
tunes,  and  masters  of  the  capital  of  the  United  States,  and  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  inaugurated  here  only  because  they  were  loyal. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  If  that  is  the  case,  it  seems  to  me  there  is  a 
monstrous  lie  going  the  rounds  of  the  country. 


550  AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  think  there  is.  The  people  of  Ma 
ryland  have  been  libeled  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  It  is  well  known  that  when  the  President 
came  here  to  be  inaugurated,  four  years  ago,  he  was  obliged  to  flee 
through  the  city  of  Baltimore  like  a  stranger,  in  disguise,  to  avoid 
assassination. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  The  gentleman  says  the  President  had 
to  flee  through  Baltimore.  I  say  it  may  be  that  he  did  so ;  but  a 
man  of  heroic  mould  would  have  marched  through  it  safety. 

Mr.  FARNSWORTH.  I  regret  exceedingly,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  my 
friend  from  Maryland,  who  has  been,  in  the  main,  right,  should 
now,  in  the  last  days  of  the  session,  surround  himself  by  those 
who  have  been  heretofore  his  enemies,  and  who  now  beslobber 
him  with  their  praise.  When  a  man  on  this  side  of  the  House 
puts  himself  in  such  a  position  as  that  the  unworthy  member 
from  Maryland  [Mr.  Harris]  congratulates  him  and  smiles  his 
praise  on  him  for  the  speech  he  makes,  and  when  the  gentleman 
from  Indiana  [Mr.  Yoorhees]  marches  over  here  and  takes  him  by 
the  hand,  and  congratulates  him  for  his  assault  on  the  administra 
tion,  he  ought  to  raise  his  hands  toward  heaven,  and  say,  "  My 
God !  what  have  I  done,  that  my  enemies  and  the  enemies  of  my 
country  should  praise  me  ?" 

Why,  sir,  how  long  is  it  since,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  only  the 
day  before  the  last  general  election,  a  stupendous  conspiracy  was 
discovered  ?  Among  the  plotters  were  persons  of  that  city.  They 
had  conspired  with  the  rebel  prisoners  in  Camp  Douglas,  and  with 
emissaries  from  the  South,  to  release  all  the  prisoners  in  Camp 
Douglas,  put  arms  in  their  hands,  and  then  sack  and  destroy  the 
city  of  Chicago.  Those  men  are  now  being  tried  before  a  mili 
tary  commission,  and  such  facts  have  been  proved  against  them ; 
so  thoroughly  have  they  been  fastened  upon  them  that  one  or  two 
of  them  have  put  an  end  to  their  own  existence  in  despair,  and  in 
anticipation  of  their  deserved  doom. 

Gentlemen  are  mistaken,  it  seems  to  me,  as  to  the  manner  of 
conducting  these  courts-martial.  Every  particle  of  evidence  taken 
before  them  is  preserved  in  writing.  The  defendants  have  sub 
poenas  issued  for  their  witnesses,  whose  attendance  is  compelled, 
and  all  the  testimony,  pro  and  con,  is  taken  by  the  judge  advocate 
and  the  counsel  of  the  defendants,  for  they  are  allowed  to  have 
counsel,  and  the  testimony  is  preserved,  and  with  the  specification 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.  551 

and  findings  is  filed  in  the  War  Department,  where  it  undergoes 
the  careful  supervision  and  review  of  Judge  Holt,  one  of  the  ablest, 
most  honest  me*n  in  the  country.  The  findings  are  thoroughly 
reviewed,  and  approved  or  disapproved,  and  the  sentence  carried 
out  or  not,  according  to  that  decision.  These  records  go  into  the 
archives  of  the  government,  and  can  at  any  time  be  called  for  by 
this  House,  and  be  published  to  the  world. 

Now  this  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Maryland  [Mr. 
Davis]  would  let  loose  upon  the  country  some  of  the  very  worst 
characters  we  ever  had  among  us.  It  is  not  long  since  a  resolu 
tion  was  introduced  into  this  House,  and  adopted,  instructing  the 
Military  Committee  to  examine  into  the  military  prisons  in  this 
city.  The  Military  Committee  made  that  investigation ;  they  ex 
amined  the  prisoners  and  took  testimony.  And  upon  my  soul — 
and  I  think  every  member  of  the  Military  Committee  will  agree 
with  me  in  this- — I  do  think  that  of  all  the  rapscallions,  of  all  the 
miserable,  devilish  tribe  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,  they  are  those  in 
the  military  prisons  in  this  city.  I  have  not  heard  of  one  of  them, 
no  matter  how  arbitrarily  he  may  have  been  arrested,  but  he  was 
properly  arrested,  for  he  was  guilty. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

March  3.  The  Committee  of  Conference  having  failed  to  agree,  and 
the  Senate  insisting  on  its  amendment,  in  the  House  the  bill  was  defeat 
ed  as  follows : 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  rise  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  re 
port  of  the  Committee  of  Conference  on  the  disagreeing  votes  of 
the  two  houses  on  the  amendments  to  the  Miscellaneous  Appro 
priation  Bill.  If  it  be  required  the  report  can  be  read,  but  per 
haps  I  can  accomplish  the  same  purpose  by  stating  briefly  and 
more  intelligibly  the  substance  of  it. 

Mr.  Speaker,  owing  to  an  error  on  my  part  in  reference  to  the 
chairmanship  of  the  committee,  it  so  happens  that  I  took  the  notes 
of  the  conference  instead  of  my  honorable  friend  from  New  York 
[Mr.  Littlejohn],  and  by  his  courtesy  I  make  the  statement  of  the 
result. 

Having  passed  over  the  amendment  which  was  the  subject  of 
controversy  in  the  House  until  we  reached  this  point,  we  then 
reverted  to  it,  and  found  that  there  was  a  radical  diversity  of 
opinion,  and  perhaps  an  irreconcilable  one,  between  the  rep  re- 


552   AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

sentatives  of  the  House  and  those  of  the  Senate.  The  gentlemen 
gn  the  part  of  the  Senate  stated  that  while  a  majority  of  the  Sen 
ate  concurred  in  the  principle  involved  in  that  -amendment,  yet 
that  the  majority  of  the  Senate  had  refused  upon  two  votes,  had 
deliberately  determined  not  to  pass  the  amendment  as  a  part  of  this 
bill.  It  was  then  proposed  to  them  that  they  should  take  the 
section  in  the  form  in  which  it  had  passed  the  House,  carry  it 
into  the  Senate  and  pass  it  immediately  as  a  separate  bill,  and 
send  it  to  the  House  in  order  that  we  might  act  upon  it  imme 
diately,  upon  which  condition  we  were  ready  to  have  agreed  to 
recommend  the  House  to  allow  the  bill  to  pass  without  this 
amendment.  The  gentlemen  thought  they  could  not  accomplish 
that  in  the  present  state  of  feeling  and  temper  of  the  Senate,  and 
declined  to  make  the  effort. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  remained  for  a  majority  of  the 
House  committee  to  determine  between  the  great  result  of  losing 
an  important  appropriation  bill,  or,  after  having  raised  a  question 
of  this  magnitude  touching  so  nearly  the  right  of  every  citizen 
to  his  personal  liberty  and  the  very  endurance  of  republican  in 
stitutions,  and  to  insure  its  consideration  fastened  it  on  an  appro 
priation  bill,  to  allow  it  to  be  stricken  out  as  a  matter  of  second 
ary  importance.  The  committee  thought  that  their  duty  to  their 
constituents,  to  the  House,  and  to  themselves,  would  not  allow 
them  to  provide  for  any  pecuniary  appropriations  at  the  expense 
of  so  grave  a  reflection  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  gov 
ernment. 

The  situation  is  a  grave  one.  The  President  has  now  by  law — 
a  law  insanely  passed  by  the  last  Congress,  to  repeal  which  this 
House  early  in  its  first  session  unanimously  passed  a  bill  which 
to  this  day  the  Senate  has  refused  even  to  consider — the  absolute 
authority  to  deprive  every  officer  of  the  United  States  of  his 
commission  at  his  will,  on  his  own  judgment,  and  at  his  pleasure, 
or  caprice  alone.  The  law  does  not  merely  authorize,  but  it  re 
quests  the  President  to  use  the  power  conferred. 

There  are  laws  upon  the  statute-book  which  subject  to  trial 
by  courts -martial,  composed  of  these  officers,  thus  dependent 
upon  the  will  of  the  President,  large  classes  of  our  fellow-citi 
zens. 

The  practice  of  the  government  has  introduced  into  the  juris 
prudence  of  the  United  States  principles  unknown  to  the  laws  of 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.  553 

the  United  States,  loosely  described  under  the  general  term  of 
" the  rules  and  usages  of  war"  and  new  crimes,  defined  bj  no 
law,  called  "military  offenses;"  and  without  the  authority  of  any 
statute,  constitutional  or  unconstitutional,  pointing  these  laws — 
confined  by  the  usage  of  the  world  to  enemies  in  enemies'  terri 
tory — against  our  own  citizens  in  our  own  territory,  the  govern 
ment  has  repeatedly  deprived  many  citizens  of  the  United  States 
of  their  liberty,  has  condemned  many  to  death,  who  have  only 
been  redeemed  from  that  extreme  penalty  by  the  kindness  of  the 
President's  heart,  aided  doubtless  by  the  serious  scruples  he  can 
not  but  feel  touching  the  legality  of  the  judgment  that  assigned 
them  to  death. 

There  have  been  many  cases  in  which  judgments  of  confine 
ment  in  the  penitentiary  have  been  inflicted  for  acts  not  punish 
able  either  under  the  usages  of  war  or  under  any  statute  of  the 
United  States  by  any  military  tribunal;  crimes  for  which  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  prescribe  the  punishment  have  been 
visited  with  other  and  severer  punishments  by  military  tribu 
nals;  violations  of  contract  with  the  government,  real  or  im 
puted,  have  been  construed  by  these  tribunals  into  frauds,  and 
punished  illegally  as  crimes;  excessive  bail  has  been  demand 
ed,  and,  when  furnished,  impudently  reduced;  and  the  attempt 
of  Congress  to  discriminate  between  crimes  committed  by  per 
sons  in  the  military  forces  and  citizens  not  in  those  forces  has 
been  annulled,  and  the  very  offenses  it  specifically  required  to 
be  tried  before  the  courts  of  the  United  States  have  been  tried 
before  military  tribunals  dependent  upon  the  will  of  the  Presi 
dent. 

The  President,  when  petitioned  humbly,  has  refused  or  neglect 
ed  more  than  once  to  stop  the  illegal  proceedings  and  submit  the 
case  to  courts  of  the  United  States. 

"Courts-martial  are  organized  to  convict"  is  the  sinister  declara 
tion  of  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the  President 
still  tolerates  his  presence ! 

That  hand  inserted,  under  the  innocent  title  of  a  bill  to  in 
crease  the  paymasters  of  the  navy,  a  section  subjecting  every 
agent  and  servant  of  the -Navy  Department  to  trial  by  court- 
martial,  which  passed  the  Senate  and  the  House  without  discov 
ery  or  exposure,  and  now  hangs  on  a  motion  to  reconsider. 

It  was  the  settled  purpose  of  oppression  disclosed  by  that 


554  AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL. 

act  which,  occasioned  this  amendment,  and  forbids  its  abandon 
ment. 

The  committee  remember  that  such  things  are  inconsistent 
with  the  endurance  of  republican  government.  The  party  which 
tolerates  or  defends  them  must  destroy  itself  or  the  republic. 
They  felt  they  had  reached  a  point  at  which  a  vote  must  be  cast 
which  may  break  up  political  parties,  or  if  it  do  not,  will  break 
up  or  save  a  great  republican  government.  Before  these  altern 
atives  they  could  not  hesitate.  They  thought  it  best  now,  at 
this  time,  to  leave  this  law  standing  as  a  broken  dike  in  the  midst 
of  the  rising  flood  of  lawless  power  around  us,  to  show  to  this 
generation  how  high  that  flood  of  lawless  power  has  risen  in  only 
three  years  of  civil  war,  as  a  warning  to  those  who  are  to  come 
after  us,  as  an  awakening  to  those  who  are  now  with  us. 

They  have,  therefore,  come  to  the  determination,  so  far  as  the 
constitutional  privileges  and  prerogatives  of  this  House  will  ena 
ble  them  to  accomplish  the  result,  that  this  bill  shall  not  become 
a  law  if  these  words  do  not  stand  as  part  of  it — the  affirmation 
by  the  representatives  of  the  States  and  of  the  people  of  the  in 
alienable  birthright  of  every  American  citizen  ;  and  on  that  ques 
tion  they  appeal  from  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  to  the  judg 
ment  of  the  American  people. 

Mr.  LITTLEJOHN.  Believing,  sir,  as  I  do,  that  this  great  repub 
lic  could  not  have  been  given  to  posterity  except  by  the  exercise 
of  the  very  power  of  which  the  amendment  of  my  friend  from 
Maryland  [Mr.  Davis]  seeks  at  this  time  to  deprive  the  exec 
utive,  I  agreed  with  the  Senate  committee,  and  it  was  our  desire 
to  report  unanimously,  advising  that  the  House  recede  from  its 
amendment.  We  could  not  agree,  however,  and  hence  we  have 
narrowed  down  the  question  as  much  as  possible.  I  propose 
therefore,  if  it  be  in  order,  that  the  House  concur  in  the  report  of 
the  Committee  of  Conference  upon  all  except  the  amendment 
known  as  the  Winter  Davis  amendment,  and  upon  that  I  move 
that  the  House  recede,  so  as  to  bring  the  question  to  a  direct  vote. 
And  upon  these  motions  I  move  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Maryland.  I  am  in  earnest  in  this  matter,  and 
am  determined  that  not  one  item  of  this  bill  shall  pass  without 
the  whole  of  it. 

Mr.  KASSOX.  I  appeal  to  the  gentleman  to  allow  the  appropri 
ation  for  the  insane  to  be  made. 


AMENDMENT  TO  MISCELLANEOUS  APPROPRIATION  BILL.   555 

Mr.  LITTLEJOHN.  I  agree  with  the  gentleman  from  Maryland. 
I  object  to  any  such  proposition.  This  whole  bill  must  pass 
through,  or  none  of  it. 

A  determination  being  thus  manifested  that  the  bill  should  not  be 
come  a  law  without  the  amendment  securing  citizens  against  trials  by 
courts-martial,  the  House,  after  one  or  two  dilatory  votes,  proceeded  to 
other  business  till  adjournment  sine  die. 


LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION.— UNIVERSAL 
.   SUFFRAGE. 

To  the  rising  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  rapidly  succeeded  the 
events  which  astounded  the  country — the  surrender  of  the  rebel  armies 
under  Lee,  the  assassination  of  the  President,  the  attempts  to  assassinate 
the  Y ice-President  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  final  dispersion 
of  the  armed  rebellion  in  the  Southern  States. 

Mr.  Davis  had  left  Congress,  with  health  impaired  by  labors  and  ex 
posure  there,  but  he  still  continued  his  efforts  in  relation  to  the  matter 
of  reconstruction  of  the  governments  in  the  Southern  States. 

In  May  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Washington  upon  that  subject  the  fol 
lowing  letter,  which  contains  the  first  formal  declaration  of  his  opinion 
as  to  the  necessity  of  conferring  the  right  of  suffrage  on  the  colored  race 
in  those  States. 

Baltimore,  May  27,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — Please  accept  my  acknowledgments  for  your 
kind  note. 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  a  short  and  satisfactory  answer  to  your 
brief  and  pregnant  question  touching  our  prospects  under  Presi 
dent  Johnson. 

The  future  of  the  nation  is  summed  up  in  the  restoration  of  po 
litical  power  to  the  States  lately  in  rebellion. 

Of  what  the  President's  policy  is  on  that  topic  I  know  nothing. 

The  conditions  of  the  problem  are  plain,  and  the  consequences 
of  the  several  possible  solutions  follow  with  logical  certainty.  It 
rests  with  the  President,  in  the  state  in  which  Congress  has  left 
the  question,  to  take  the  initiative,  and  the  mode  in  which  that  is 
done  will  determine  all  that  follows.  Whatever  State  govern 
ments  he  allows  to  be  organized,  and  to  elect  representatives  and 
senators  to  Congress,  will  be  recognized  by  Congress  in  December 
in  all  probability. 

None  exist  now  in  any  State  which  rebelled ;  none  can  be  or 
ganized  legally  without  the  assent  of  the  United  States,  and  no 
steps  to  secure  that  assent  can  be  taken  without  his  permission. 

The  President's  only  power  over  the  question  rests  in  his  right 


LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION.  557 

to  refuse  permission  for  any  Convention  or  election  to  be  held, 
unless  on  terms  satisfactory  to  him ;  but  that  power  is  decisive. 
If  he  refuse  to  permit  any  election  or  any  Convention  to  be  held, 
things  will  await  the  solution  of  Congress. 

If  he  permit  the  aggregate  white  population  of  the  South,  qual 
ified  to  vote  under  the  old  governments  abrogated  by  the  rebel 
lion,  to  organize  the  State  governments,  that  installs  the  revolu 
tionary  faction  in  power  in  the  States,  and  fills  Congress  with  their 
representatives  and  senators. 

That  is  to  place  the  sceptre  in  the  hands  from  which  we  have 
just  wrested  the  sword. 

If  the  President  attempt  to  discriminate  the  loyal  from  the  dis 
loyal,  and  exclude  from  voting  all  who  have  given  aid  and  com 
fort  to  the  rebellion,  a  mere  handful  of  the  population  will  re 
main,  wholly  incompetent  to  form  or  maintain  a  State  govern 
ment,  and  sure  to  be  overwhelmed  by  the  political  counter-revo 
lution  at  the  next  election,  which  will  restore  power  to  the  leaders 
of  the  rebellion.  "While  it  stands  under  the  protection  of  the 
United  States  it  will  constitute  an  odious  oligarchy,  disposing  of 
the  lives  and  property  of  the  great  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens, 
without  any  responsibility,  and  controlling  the  national  legislation 
by  the  people  for  whom  they  vote. 

This  result  is  unavoidable.  The  whole  mass  of  the  population 
of  the  South  has  given  aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebellion.  The  war 
was  made  by  the  accession  of  the  Union  men  to  the  rebel  faction. 
It  is  idle  to  talk  of  a  quiescent  mass  of  loyal  men  overborne  by 
violence.  It  was  the  Union  men  who  passed  the  Ordinance  of  Se 
cession  in  Virginia,  and  who  made  it  effectual  after  it  was  passed. 
In  no  State  was  the  rebellion  dangerous  without  the  active  aid  of 
those  opposed  to  secession. 

But  the  United  States  had  no  friends  in  the  rebel  States  against 
those  States,  and  they  have  none  to-day. 

The  Union  men  of  the  South  preferred  union  and  peace  to  dis 
union  ;  they  deplored  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  but  they  never 
hesitated  a  moment  which  side  to  take.  If  there  was  to  be  war, 
they  were  for  their  States  and  against  the  United  States.  There 
was  no  respectable  number  of  Union  men  willing  to  aid  the  Unit 
ed  States  in  compelling  submission  to  the  Constitution,  and  there 
are  none  now.  All  submit  to  force.  Many  are  willing  to  acqui 
esce  in  the  unavoidable.  All  are  willing  to  govern  the  United 


558  LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION. 

States  again,  since  independence  is  impossible  ;  but  all  were  also 
willing  to  aid  the  rebellion  ;  and  not  an  assault  and  battery  was 
committed  for  the  United  States  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 

The  Union  men  of  the  South  did  not  merely  bow  to  overbear 
ing  force,  but  they  hastened  to  seek  places  in  the  Legislature,  the 
Congress,  the  executive  mansions,  and  gave  it  a  countenance  and 
support,  without  which  it  must  have  fallen  in  a  year  ;  and  when 
its  cause  was  hopeless,  they  were  quiet  and  submissive,  and  did 
not  rise  to  aid  the  United  States. 

It  is  certainly  to  this  class1  of  the  white  population  that  we  must 
look  for  aid  in  restoring  civil  government  in  these  States,  but  it  is 
a  great  delusion  to  suppose  them  either  bold  or  strong  enough  to 
meet  and  defy  the  united  and  energetic  faction  of  revolutionists 
which  drove  them  into  rebellion.  If  they  be  in  power,  they  will 
again  do  the  will  of  the  resolute  and  reckless  men  who  stood  be 
hind  and  around  them,  and  no  legal  line  discriminates  them  from 
the  rebel  mass. 

If  this  discrimination  be  attempted  by  the  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  every  body  will  take  it,  and  no 
body  will  be  excluded. 

If  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion,  civil  and  military,  be  excluded, 
though  willing  to  submit  and  take  the  oath,  the  mass  of  the  rebel 
faction  will  be  admitted,  and  that  will  be  the  controlling  and  de 
termining  element  in  selecting  representatives  and  senators,  and 
the  practical  result  is  the  same  as  if  nobody  were  excluded/ 

If  either  of  these  forms  be  accepted  by  the  President  and  recog 
nized  by  Congress,  it  will  instantly  change  the  balance  of  political 
power  in  the  United  States. 

It  is  probable  that  the  people  who  saved  the  nation  are  not  con 
tent  to  accept  its  consequences  without  a  murmur. 

None  of  the  white  population  of  the  Southern  States  is  interest 
ed  in  paying  the  public  debt  or  imposing  taxes  to  meet  its  interest. 
They  hold  none  of  it.  It  was  created  to  subjugate  them  to  the 
laws.  It  has  been  consumed  in  their  overthrow.  It  is  to  be  paid, 
in  great  part,  out  of  their  substance.  It  has  annihilated  their  pub 
lic  debt.  It  has  filled  the  land  with  ostracized  officers,  with  wound 
ed  soldiers,  with  an  odious  free  negro  population,  lately  their 
slaves,  and  still  under  their  political  control. 

If  the  whites  be  restored  to  political  power,  their  representatives 


UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE.  559 

are  interested  in  repudiating  that  public  debt,  in  refusing  to  pay 
its  interest,  in  restoring  their  officers  to  the  army  and  navy,  in 
placing  their  wounded  on  the  pension  roll,  in  indemnifying  their 
friends  for  losses  by  war,  or  confiscation  or  forced  tax  sales,  in  re 
storing  slavery  under  the  form  of  apprenticeship  or  fixed  wages 
and  compulsory  service  and  discriminating  and  oppressive  legis 
lation.  The  effort  has  already  been  made  in  Tennessee,  and  the 
spirit  which  dictated  it  pervades  the  whole  South,  and  will  find 
statutes  ready  to  its  hand  in  every  State.  In  Congress  a  minority 
can  arrest  legislation.  A  majority  of  either  House  can  compel 
submission  to  any  terms,  under  penalty  of  arresting  or  disorganiz 
ing  the  government. 

The  representatives  from  the  States  lately  in  rebellion  will  form 
a  powerful  and  hostile  minority,  and  if  they  do  not  find  enough 
enemies  of  the  government  from  the  States  now  represented  to 
give  them  a  majority  in  one  House  for  some  of  the  purposes  above 
indicated,  the  near  past  throws  no  light  on  the  near  future.  The 
prospect  of  political  disorganization  will  present  few  terrors  to 
people  still  hot  with  rebellion,  smarting  with  overthrow,  and  quite 
as  content  to  ruin  as  to  rule  the  country. 

To  expect  them  to  join  in  electing  a  Eepublican  President 
would  be  an  amiable  delusion  which  the  first  election  would  dis 
pel  ;  and  they  might  find  it  some  indemnity  for  emancipation  if 
the  increased  vote  they  would  cast  in  the  name  of  their  freed 
slaves  should  happen  to  decide  the  contest  and  elevate  them  to 
power. 

If  the  people  are  ready  for  these  consequences,  then  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  restoring  political  power  to  the  Southern  States. 
Louisiana  or  Virginia  will  serve  as  models,  or  other  forms  will 
grow  with  mushroom  rapidity. 

But  if  it  be  important  that  the  friends  and  not  the  enemies  of 
the  government  shall  continue  to  govern  it,  other  measures  must 
be  taken. 

The  State  governments  in  the  South  must  be  placed  in  hands 
interested  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
not  enough  that  conquered  people  are  willing  to  submit  to  entitle 
them  to  govern  us.  The  United  States  must  find  friends  interest 
ed  and  able  to  suppress  hostility  to  its  authority  and  to  discharge 
all  the  functions  of  government,  state  and  national,  in  the  face 
of  every  disloyal  or  hostile  power.  And  the  power  of  those  who 


560  LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION. 

rebelled  must  be  curbed  by  those  who  did  not  rebel,  aided  by 
those  who  joined  the  rebellion  reluctantly,  and  are  anxious  to 
atone  for  their  error  or  weakness. 

This  can  be  done  only  by  recognizing  the  negro  population  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States,  and  by  re 
fusing  to  permit  any  State  government  to  be  organized  on  any 
other  basis  than  universal  suffrage  and  equality  before  the  law. 

Whatever  anomalies  may  have  been  winked  at  during  the  era 
of  slavery,  it  may  well  be  doubted  if,  without  a  serious  blow  at 
our  principles,  any  government  can  be  recognized  as  republican 
in  form  which  excludes  from  suffrage  and  equal  laws  a  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  the  States,  as  would  be  the  case  in  South  Caro 
lina  and  Mississippi,  or  half  the  citizens,  as  would  be  the  case  in 
Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Virginia,  if  the  negro  citizens 
be  disfranchised. 

It  is  certain  that  governments  which  declared  them  equal  be 
fore  the  law,  and  recognized  universal  suffrage,  would  be  repub 
lican  in  form  and  substance  also.  It  is  equally  certain  that  such 
a  constitution  in  the  Southern  States  is  the  only  one  consistent 
with  the  national  peace  and  safety ;  and  Congress  has  the  right, 
and,  I  think,  ought  to  refuse  to  recognize  any  State  governments 
in  those  States  not  on  that  basis. 

But  the  white  people  of  the  States  which  rebelled  will  not  or 
ganize  governments  on  that  basis.  No  considerable  portion  of 
the  white  population  of  those  States  is  in  favor  of  it.  The  loyal 
are  as  much  against  it  as  the  rebel  leaders. 

None  will  adopt  it  of  themselves,  nor  will  they  adopt  it  on  the 
request  and  under  the  influence  of  the  President ;  but  all  will 
submit  to  it  if  exacted,  and  accept  it  if  unavoidable. 

To  submit  the  question  to  the  loyal  voters  of  the  State  assumes 
the  existence  of  a  State  government  and  a  Constitution  defining 
the  fight  of  suffrage,  and  making  loyalty  a  condition. 

But  there  are  no  such  Constitutions  in  any  State  which  rebelled. 
The  United  States  have  refused  to  recognize  any  State  govern 
ments  in  any  of  those  States.  There  are,  therefore,  no  State  gov 
ernments  and  no  voters  in  any  of  the  rebel  States. 

There  are  States,  and  people  of  those  States,  both  known  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  And  the  negroes  are  as  in 
tegral  a  part  of  the  people  of  the  State  as  the  whites.  Both  are 
citizens;  neither  has  a  right  to  exclude  the  other;  neither  can 


UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE.  561 

speak  in  the  name  of  the  State  for  the  other ;  it  is  the  equal  right 
of  both  to  be  heard  and  represented  in  constituting  their  common 
government,  and  any  proposal  to  submit  the  question  of  the  polit 
ical  or  civil  rights  of  the  negroes  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  whites 
is  as  unjust  and  as  absurd  as  to  submit  the  question  of  the  polit 
ical  rights  of  the  whites  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  negroes — with 
this  difference,  that  the  negroes  are  loyal  every  where,  and  the 
great  body  of  the  whites  disloyal  every  where. 

The  problem,  therefore,  is  solved  by  a  simple  appeal  to  the  peo 
ple  of  the  State. 

No  election  can  be  held,  no  Convention  assemble,  no  political 
authority  be  legally  exercised  in  any  of  those  States  but  by  the 
will  of  the  United  States,  and  for  the  present,  till  Congress  speak, 
by  the  will  of  the  President. 

If,  therefore,  the  President  will  declare  that  no  election  shall  be 
held  unless  the  negro  population  have  a  free  and  equal  voice,  that 
no  Convention  shall  assemble  which  they  have  not  helped  to  elect, 
that  none  shall  proceed  to  frame  a  government  unless  in  the  be 
ginning  universal  suffrage  and  equality  before  the  law  be  declared 
its  fundamental  basis,  the  problem  is  solved. 

If  those  conditions  be  accepted,  the  Constitution  will  be  pre 
sented  to  Congress  and  the  government  recognized  which  it  forms. 

If  they  be  not  accepted,  the  President  will  hold  the  States  till 
Congress  declare  how  they  shall  be  governed. 

If  the  problem  be  not  dealt  with  in  this  way,  or  in  some  such 
way,  it  will  be  solved  in  an  adverse  sense. 

If  it  be  not  solved  rightly,  it  threatens  to  generate  a  barren  and 
bitter  agitation,  sure  to  result  disastrously  to  those  who  propose 
the  political  enfranchisement  of  the  negroes,  and  to  consolidate 
the  union  of  the  enemies  of -the  government  in  the  loyal  States 
into  an  irresistible  power,  which  must  wrest  the  government  from 
the  hands  of  those  who  had  saved  it.  This  coalition  is  probable 
in  any  event ;  but  on  this  question  it  is  certain  and  fatal. 

The  negro  population  must  be  recognized  by  the  President  and 
Congress  as  an  integral  part  of  the  people  of  the  State  in  the  view 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  without  whose  concur 
rence  and  full  participation  of  power  no  State  government  will 
be  recognized  in  any  State  which  rebelled,  or  it  will  remain  ostra 
cized  and  outcast  for  another  generation,  and  the  enemies  of  the 
government  will  wrest  it  from  the  hands  of  those  who  saved  it. 


562  LETTER  ON  RECONSTRUCTION. 

To  permit  the  whites  to  disfranchise  the  negroes  is  to  permit 
those  who  have  been  our  enemies  to  ostracize  our  friends.  The 
negroes  are  the  only  persons  in  those  States  who  have  not  been 
in  arms  against  us.  They  have  always  and  every  where  been 
friendly  and  not  hostile  to  us.  They  alone  have  a  deep  interest 
in  the  continued  supremacy  of  the  United  States,  for  their  free 
dom  depends  on  it.  On  them  alone  can  we  depend  to  suppress  a 
new  insurrection.  They  alone  will  be  inclined  to  vote  for  the 
friends  of  the  government  in  all  the  Southern  States.  They  alone 
have  sheltered,  fed,  and  pioneered  our  starved  and  hunted  breth 
ren  through  the  swamps  and  woods  of  the  South,  in  their  flight 
from  those  who  now  aspire  to  rule  them. 

The  shame  and  folly  of  deserting  the  negroes  are  equaled  by 
the  wisdom  of  recognizing  and  protecting  their  power. 

They  will  form  a  clear  and  controlling  majority  against  the 
united  white  vote  in  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana. 

"With  a  very  small  accession  from  the  loyal  whites,  they  will 
form  a  majority  in  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Virginia, 

Unaided  in  all  those  States,  they  will  be  a  majority  in  many 
congressional  and  legislative  districts,  and  that  alone  suffices  to 
break  the  terrible  and  menacing  unity  of  the  Southern  vote  in 
Congress. 

If  organized  and  led  by  men  having  their  confidence,  the  ne 
groes  will  prove  as  powerful  and  loyal  at  the  polls  as  they  have 
already,  in  the  face  of  equal  clamor  and  equal  prejudice,  proved 
themselves  under  such  leaders  on  the  field  of  battle. 

To  those  who  say  they  are  unfit  for  the  franchise,  I  reply  they 
are  more  fit  than  secessionists. 

If  they  be  ignorant,  they  are  not  more  so  than  large  masses  of 
the  white  voters  of  the  South,  or  the  rabble  which  is  tumbled  on 
the  wharves  of  New  York  and  run  straight  to  the  polls. 

However  ignorant,  they  know  enough  to  be  on  the  side  of  the 
government,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  master  has  not  yet  taught 
him  that  wisdom. 

They  may  be  influenced  by  the  master,  but  the  master  must 
touch  his  hat  to  them  at  least,  and  it  will  be  an  open  question 
whether  they  will  vote  with  the  master  any  more  than  they 
fought  on  his  side.  It  is  certain  the  Northern  immigrant  will 
find  the  negro  a  safe  ally,  and  arguments  on  his  lips  will  lose 'no 
weight  by  their  Yankee  origin. 


UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE.  563 

It  is  said  not  to  be  safe  for  masters  to  visit  their  plantations  in 
Georgia;  when  they  do  they  will  hardly  carry  much  influence 
politically. 

I  repeat  that  in  this  problem  are  involved  the  issues  of  life  and 
death. 

If  the  negro  population  be  recognized 'as  an  integral  portion  of 
the  people  of  the  States  which  rebelled,  and  governments  can  be 
organized  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage  and  equality  before 
the  law,  Congress  ought  to  recognize  them,  and  the  problem  is 
solved  forever. 

If  governments  be  allowed  by  the  President  to  be  organized  on 
the  basis  of  the  exclusion  of  the  mass  of  the  negro  population, 
then  Congress  ought  to  refuse  to  recognize  them ;  but  I  fear  it 
will  not  refuse. 

If  the  question  be  submitted  to  the  vote  of  any  portion  of  the 
white  population,  the  negroes  will  be  excluded  from  power. 

That  result  entails  on  us  a  barren  agitation  instead  of  a  benef 
icent  settlement.  It  carries  with  it  a  division  of  the  friends  of  the 
government,  and  threatens  to  elevate  its  enemies  to  power. 

For  premature  agitators  I  have  small  sympathy.  They  are 
cocks  which  crow  at  midnight ;  they  do  not  herald  the  dawn,  but 
merely  disturb  natural  rest  by  untimely  clamor. 

But  this  is  a  question  of  political  dynamics,  which  presses  now 
for  solution,  and  on  it  depends  the  chief  fruits  of  the  war. 

If  it  be  not  rightly  solved  now,  it  will  find  no  solution  for  a 
generation,  and  possibly  none  then  without  renewed  civil  commo 
tions.  Over  the  result  I  have  no  power.  I  can  only  hope  and 
fear.  Your  obedient  servant, 

H.  WINTER  DAVIS. 


LESSONS  OP  THE  WAR  —  THE  AMERICAN 
CONTINENT  KEPUBLICAN.— SECUEITY  FOR 
THE  FUTURE,  AND  SELF-GOVERNMENT  BY 
LAW,  WITH  LIBERTY  GUARDED  BY  POWER. 

MR.  DAVIS  was  invited  to  deliver  the  oration  at  the  civic  celebration 
of  the  4th  of  July,  1865,  by  the  city  of  Chicago.  He  complied  with  this 
invitation,  and  on  that  occasion  the  proceedings  took  place,  and  the  ora 
tion  was  delivered,  as  set  forth  in  the  following  account : 

Never  in  the  history  of  our  country  was  the  National  Anniversary  more  generally 
and  heartily  observed  than  at  its  recent  occurrence.  The  war  had  just  closed.  The 
troops  were  coming  home.  The  people  and  the  returned  veterans  had  well  earned, 
by  the  patriotic  sacrifices  of  four  years,  and  by  its  splendid  result  in  a  rescued  na 
tion,  the  right  to  make  the  ovation  of  patriotic  rejoicing  memorable.  In  all  parts 
of  the  country,  in  all  the  cities,  in  the  larger  towns,  and  in  the  rally  by  counties, 
festive  celebrations  took  place  on  a  large  scale.  The  best  talent  of  the  country  was 
enlisted  for  the  intellectual  portion  of  these  occasions,  and  the  utterances  of  not  a 
few  of  these  orators  will  possess  a  more  than  transient  importance.  The  subsidence 
of  the  war  has  left  important  and  vital  questions  of  national  polity  and  humanity  to 
be  decided  in  our  day.  Utterances  which  throw  light  on  the  path  of  the  people, 
and  are  an  aid  to  public  duty,  are  worthy  to  gain  a  wider  circulation  than  in  the 
single  locality  of  their  origin.  It  is  with  this  view  that  it  has  been  decided  to  pre 
serve  in  the  present  form  the  oration  of  Hon.  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  the 
orator  of  the  day  in  Chicago.  It  is  not  necessary  to  claim  for  it  the  characteristics 
nil  loyal  men  will  accord  it  on  perusal.  An  extended  reference  to  the  other  accom 
panying  features  of  the  day  is  scarcely  called  for.  It  was  a  general  observance  by 
our  citizens,  probably  the  first  that  ever  united  all  classes  of  our  community,  all  na 
tionalities,  and  all  organizations,  in  a  common  patriotic  purpose  of  Fourth  of  July 
observance.  The  procession  was  in  this  respect  representative.  The  officers  of  the 
day  were  Col.  John  L.  Hancock,  Chief  Marshal,  with  Col.  J.  M.  Loomis,  Col.  James 
II.  Bowen,  Chief  Engineer  Harris,  John  Durkin,  and  Jacob  Koch,  as  marshals  of  the 
several  divisions.  In  the  proceedings  of  the  day  our  returned  war  heroes  bore  prom 
inent  share.  The  audience-room  was  the  largest  that  offered  shelter  to  any  gather 
ing  in  the  United  States  on  that  day.  It  was  the  mammoth  Hall  of  the  Sanitary 
Fair,  then  just  closed.  Probably  not  less  than  ten  thousand  were  comfortably  ac 
commodated  within  reach  of  the  speaker's  voice.  The  following  were  the  officers 
at  the  Hall : 

President  of  the  Day — Hon.  J.  B.  Rice,  Mayor  of  Chicago. 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAK,  ETC.  565 

Vice-Presidents — Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  Hon.  Julian  S.  Rumsey,  Hon.  J.  R. 
Jones,  Daniel  Brainard,  Hon.  J.  B.  Bradwell.  Philo  Carpenter,  A.  J.  Galloway, 
James  Miller,  C.  B.  Blair,  Michael  M'Auley,  Hon.  Thjmas  Druramond,  Fred.  Letz, 
Hon.  F.  C.  Sherman,  Joseph  Lane,  Luther  Haven,  H.  D.  Colvin,  Hon.  Van  H.  Hig- 
gins,  Geo.  Schneider,  Perkins  Bass,  Hon.  S.  S.  Hayes,  Saml.  Hoard,  Philip  Wads- 
worth,  Jonathan  Burr,  Hon.  John  C.  Haines,  Hon.  Perry  H.  Smith,  General  J.  B. 
Turchin,  M.  D.  Ogden,  Walter  Kimball,  D.  D.  Driscoll,  J.  Linton  Waters,  Robert 
Forsyth,  A.  V.  Towne,  A.  Shuman,  J.  L.  Scripps,  George  C.  Bates,  J.  C.  Fargo, 
Colonel  G.  W.  Smith,  Charles  Randolph,  W.  W.  Boyington,  General  S.  P.  Bradley, 
W.  F.  Tucker,  Benj.  Lombard,  W.  C.  Coolbaugh,  A.  D.  Tittsworth,  Benj.  V.  Page, 
J.  L.  Reynolds,  John  V.  Farwell,  H.  E.  Sargent,  E.  C.  Lamed,  C.  Wahl,  Maj.  Gen. 
Webster,  Brig.  Gen.  Stolbrand,  I.  Y.  Munn,  F.  A.  Hoffman,  J.  K.  Pollard,  J.  Y. 
Scammon,  C.  N.  Holden. 

Secretaries — Joseph  Medill,  Charles  L.  Wilson,  L.  Brentano,  J.  W.  Sheahan,  and 
A.  Worden. 

The  exercises  were  the  reading  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  Last  Inau 
gural,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  delivery  of  the  Oration.  A  mag 
nificent  feature  of  the  day  was  the  grand  chorus  of  one  thousand  singers,  with  a 
monster  orchestra,  who  gave,  with  thrilling  effect,  the  patriotic  songs  on  the  pro 
gramme.  A  grand  banquet  to  the  returned  soldiers,  in  the  adjoining  Horticultural 
Hall,  and  a  splendid  exhibition  of  fireworks  in  the  evening,  were  the  closing  observ 
ances  of  the  day. 

With  this  preface,  we  leave  the  reader  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  main  feature  of 
the  occasion,  preserved  in  the  pages  which  follow.  THE  COMMITTEE. 

OKATIOR 

The  President  introduced  the  orator  of  the  day,  Hon.  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  as  one  who  hailed  from  Maryland,  bat  whose  reputation  was  na 
tional  ;  one  who  for  many  years  has  served  his  country  faithfully  in  the 
councils  of  the  Union. 

Mr.  Davis  spoke  as  follows : 

FELLOW-CITIZENS, — It  is  with  unspeakable  joy  that  I  to-day 
congratulate  you  upon  this  auspicious  return  of  our  national  birtl> 
day,  proclaimed  in  the  midst  of  doubt  and  the  clash  of  arms,  cel 
ebrated  at  the  close  of  the  Kevolution  when  independence  was 
accomplished,  and  now  celebrated  with  additional  joy,  additional 
heartiness,  and  overflowing  exultation  at  the  second  foundation 
of  the  American  republic ;  for  to-day  that  Declaration,  then  a 
promise,  spoken  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  belied  by  the  facts  that 
were  all  around  it — to-day  that  Declaration  is  true  in  right  and 
true  in  fact  from  one  end  of  this  broad  land  to  the  other — true 
now  not  only  in  Virginia,  and  in  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas ; 
not  now  limited  to  the  Alleghanies  and  the  coast;  but  true  for 


566  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

the  whole  American  people,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and 
covering  every  inch  of  territory  from  Maine  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex 
ico — every  where  true  in  right  and  true  in  fact  —  bought  with 
precious  blood  wrung  from  reluctant  hands,  strengthened  by  the 
heart's  blood  of  many  of  your  brothers  and  many  of  your  sons, 
through  good  report  and  through  evil  report,  in  the  day  of  dark 
ness  and  in  the  day  of  hope,  till  glorious  light  has  crowned  the 
cause  with  its  final  victory,  and  we  meet  here  to-day  to  celebrate 
its  jubilee. 

Fellow-citizens,  the  American  republic  rested,  in  the  fall  of  the 
year  1860,  as  peacefully  and  as  quietly  as  the  infant  on  the  moth 
er's  breast,  not  dreaming  of  war,  with  no  weapons  to  grasp,  with 
no  arms  provided,  with  no  army  organized,  with  no  generals  to 
lead  us  save  those  at  the  plow,  with  no  leaders  but  their  enemies, 
in  power,  while  a  deep  and  wide-spread  conspiracy,  organized  for 
years,  was  preparing  to  strike  what  it  fondly  hoped  was  the  final 
blow  at  the  integrity  of  the  American  republic  and  the  glory  of 
the  American  name.  It  proposed  to  expurgate  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  to  declare  that  all  men  were  not  born  free 
and  equal ;  it  proposed  to  repeal  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  which  embodied  one  government  for  all  of  these  States  for 
ever  ;  it  proposed  to  defy  the  power  of  the  government,  and  to  as 
sail  the  authority  of  the  ballot-box  with  the  sword ;  without  a 
grievance,  without  a  wrong,  without  a  well-founded  complaint,  the 
conspirators  against  its  existence  had  held  the  places  of  honor, 
had  filled  the  positions  of  power,  had  dictated  the  policy  of  the 
government,  till  they  aimed  that  blow  at  its  being,  so  swiftly,  so 
sharply,  so  deadly,  that  it  had  almost  accomplished  its  purpose 
before  you,  in  the  great  centre  of  the  American  republic,  knew 
that  the  deadly  blow  was  aimed,  before  you  knew  that  the  arm 
was  raised  to  strike  it.  It  was  difficult  for  men  to  believe ;  it 
was  long  before  the  idea  sank  into  men's  minds  that  such  wicked 
ness  and  such  bloody  purposes  actually  existed.  But  gradually 
the  light  dawned  upon  -the  public  mind,  and  the  people  found  that 
it  was  not  mere  braggadocio,  that  it  was  not  all  a  game  of  brag. 
They  then  found  that  it  meant  a  struggle  of  no  ordinary  magni 
tude,  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  South  to  stab  the  nation 
in  a  vital  part ;  in  a  word,  that  it  was  what  we  now  know  it  to  be.  • 
They  found  that  the  rebels  had  a  thoroughly-prepared,  a  well- 
considered,  a  perfectly-adjusted  plan  to  tear  in  pieces  the  Union  ; 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  567 

and  instantly,  as  if  by  magic,  from  one  end  of  this  land  to  the  oth 
er,  men  arose  in  arms  to  offer  their  lives  for  the  salvation  of  their 
country.  Generals  were  improvised,  and  regiments  raised,  and 
armies  created,  until  men  were  bewildered  with  their  numbers, 
scarce  believing  in  the  magnitude  of  the  power  the  republic  was 
disclosing  to  put  down  its  enemies. 

And  yet,  amid  all  this,  there  was  a  hesitation,  a  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  many,  so  deeply  had  it  been  grounded  in  the  minds  of 
the  masses  throughout  the  North,  that  whatever  else  might  be 
touched,  there  was  one  emblem  of  royalty,  one  sign  of  aristocratic 
domination  which  must  not  be  interfered  with — that  was  slavery. 
So  thoroughly  were  they  convinced  that  the  rebellion  could  not 
touch  its  strong-hold,  that  men  were  found  picking  their  way  ten 
derly  and  carefully  through  the  South,  as  if  they  were  marching 
through  a  powder  magazine  with  a  lighted  candle,  and  were  guard 
ing  it  carefully  for  fear  of  an  explosion,  which  would  hurt  their 
enemies.  While  we  were  divided,  they  were  united ;  we  hesita 
ted,  while  they  were  decided  ;  we  sought  to  strike  without  doing 
them  damage,  they  were  aiming  blows  directly  at  the  heart  of  the 
people;  they  fought  to  conquer,  to  destroy,  we  fought  to  save 
them;  we  fought  tenderly,  carefully,  dealing  with  them  as  our 
fellow-citizens,  who  we  fondly  supposed  were  misled  in  an  evil 
hour — accidentally  as  it  were — and  that  suddenly  a  sense  of  their 
iniquity  would  break  in  upon  them,  and  that  by-and-by  they 
would  return,  and  we  should  all  repose  again  peacefully  under  the 
shadow  of  the  old  patriarchal  institution.  But  gradually  the  pop 
ular  heart  caught  the  real  spirit  of  the  rebellion,  and  their  inspi 
ration  breathed  itself  in  song.  Around  the  camp-fires,  from  the 
solitary  sentinel  to  the  soldiers  drawn  up  in  battle  array,  the 
chords  of  the  American  heart  were  touched  by  the  spirit  of  "Bally 
round  the Jlag,  Boys,"  and  that  other  inspiring  heresy,  "John 
Brown's  Soul  is  Marching  On,"  until  the  hearts  of  the  people  were 
warmed  with  its  magic  spell,  and  the  people's  voice  reached  and 
inspired  the  dull  ears  of  those  in  power.  Then,  as  the  nation 
knew  it  was  struggling,  not  only  to  retain  reluctant  States,  but  to 
expunge  from  its  institutions  that  which  made  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  a  lie  and  a  vain  thing — then  it  was  that  the  patri 
otic  men  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  government ;  and,  though 
badly  led,  and  badly  directed,  and  often  defeated  and  involved  in 
disaster,  still  was  heard  the  cry,  "  We  come,  three  hundred  thou- 


568  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAK,  ETC. 

sand  more."  They  were  ready  to  fill  the  graves  on  every  battle 
field  till  those  who  defied  the  national  emblem  should  be.  laid 
low.  Then  it  was  they  found  that  if  there  was  division  at  the 
North,  there  was  unity  there  too ;  that  the  day  of  doubt  had 
passed ;  that  if  there  had  been  hesitation  it  was  gone,  and  merged 
into  a  strong,  sober,  stem  resolution — that  resolution  of  a  great 
people  to  die,  but  never  to  yield — the  spirit  that  breathed  in  the 
men  who  stood  at  Marathon,  and  died  on  the  field  of  Cannae  that 
liberty  might  survive  —  the  spirit  which  fired  the  heart  of  the 
French  Kepublic  when  it  defied  Europe  in  arms  seeking  its  over 
throw — the  resolution,  which  is  that  of  all  nations  born  to  great 
ness,  to  accept  no  peace  they  do  not  dictate,  no  peace  that  does  not 
humble  every  rebel  weapon  that  has  been  raised  against  the  pow 
er  and  majesty  of  the  republic.  And  from  that  day  the  defend 
ers  of  the  cause,  inspired  by  principle,  have  pursued  energetically 
the  contest,  in  the  face  of  the  hostility  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  and  loud  predictions  of  failure  here,  till  that  glorious  con 
summation  has  been  attained  which  greets  us  here  to-day.  Not 
that  blood  has  not  flowed  in  abundance  to  secure  it,  for  what  fam 
ily  has  not  lost  a  brother,  son,  or  husband,  or  some  near  bosom 
friend  ?  This  triumph  has  not  been  purchased  lightly.  It  has 
been  gained  at  the  expense  of  much  suffering  and  many  tears ;  it 
is  the  end  of  a  great  tragedy.  These  triumphs  are  secured  with 
our  blood.  Like  all  those  great  results  which  are  won  on  the 
fields  of  history  by  the  nations  destined  to  immortality,  our  em 
pire  has  been  secured  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  best  and  noblest  of 
the  land.  And  who  does  not,  when  contemplating  these  sad  and 
yet  ever-glorious  battle-fields,  every  where  see — who  does  not  de 
plore  it  with  tears — that  American  blood  has  flowed  on  both  sides ; 
that  it  was  our  brethren  who  were  led  astray,  ruined,  scourged  to 
destruction  by  the  Nemesis  of  History,  which  drives  men  to  work 
out  themselves  the  punishment  of  their  own  errors  ?  Who  does 
not  remember  that  they  are  sons  of  the  same  forefathers  who 
fought  for  that  very  Union  which  they  attacked  and  we  defend 
ed  ?  Any  man  who  does  not  remember  this  lacks  one  half  of  the 
American  heart.  But,  fellow-citizens,  we  have  fought  this  fight 
once,  and  we  have  fought  it  forever.  Every  heart  exultingly  ex 
claims, 

"No  more  the  thirsty  entrance  of  this  soil 
Shall  daub  her  lips  with  her  OAYII  children's  blood. 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAK,  ETC.  569 

No  more  shall  trenching  war  channel  her  fields, 
Nor  bruise  her  flowerets  with  the  armed  hoofs 
Of  hostile  paces.     Those  opposed  eyes, 
Which,  like  the  meteors  of  a  troubled  heaven 
(All  of  one  nature,  of  one  substance  bred), 
Did  lately  meet  in  the  intestine  shock, 
And  furious  close  of  civil  butchery, 
Shall  now,  in  mutual  well-beseeming  ranks, 
March  all  one  way,  and  be  no  more  opposed 
Against  acquaintance,  kindred,  allies. 
The  edge  of  war,  like  an  ill-sheathed  knife, 
No  more  shall  cut  his  master." 

If  this  be  prophecy  or  prayer,  let  all  the  people  say  "Amen," 
and  pray  that  it  may  be  so. 

We  have  passed,  fellow -citizens,  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death ;  harm  has  come  nigh  us,  but  it  has  not  over 
thrown  us,  and  it  is  well  now,  as  we  pass  out  of  the  gloomy  part 
of  that  valley,  that  we  should,  like  the  Pilgrim  of  the  great 
"Progress,"  pause,  as  the  sun  has  risen  upon  our  steps,  and  look 
back  to  see  the  dangers  from  which  we  have  been  rescued,  that 
we  may  be  thankful  for,  and  not  proud  of,  the  things  we  have 
accomplished. 

Many  a  delusion,  many  a  false  prophecy,  many  a  treacherous 
declaration  has  been  dispelled  by  the  harsh  collision  of  arms,  and 
they  are  buried  forever  among  the  errors  of  the  past,  to  be  re 
membered  only  that  we  may  avoid  them  hereafter.  Who  now 
does  not  know  that  secession  is  not  a  peaceful  remedy?  Who 
now  does  not  know  that  the  rebellious  South  can  not  be  con 
quered  ?  Who  now  does  not  know  that  the  way  to  preserve  the 
bond  of  peace  is  not  by  compromise  or  concession,  or  by  friendly 
proposals?  Who  does  not  know  that  the  negro  is  a  man?  for 
he  has  proved  his  manhood  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet;  not 
where  the  President  proposed  to  place  him,  in  forts  or  garrisons, 
but  in  the  line  of  battle  alongside  of  armed  white  men,  charging 
just  as  deeply  into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  ranks  as  his  white 
brethren,  vindicating  his  right  to  manhood  by  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  prerogative  of  man — fearlessness  in  the  presence  of  eter 
nity,  and  of  death  which  leads  him  there.  We  have  learned 
something  else :  State  rights  are  responsible  to  the  bayonet. 
Those  great  organizations  that  insolently  lifted  their  arms  in  the 
front  of  battle  against  the  nation,  where  are  they  now?  That 


570  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAK,  ETC. 

Virginia,  the  Old  Dominion,  with  the  master  in  its  name,  holding 
from  George  Washington  till  now  hereditary  power,  the  Mecca 
of  Southern  rights,  the  Palestine  of  the  Southern  religion,  that 
"sacred  soil,"  for  violating  which  Ellsworth  fell,  where  is  now  its 
proud  motto,  "/SVc  semper  tymnnisf1  Her  old  dominion  rent  in 
twain,  she  lies  under  the  heel  of  Liberty,  and  "  tyrannis"  is  that 
Virginia,  her  slavery  clean  gone  from  the  earth  forever.  So  let 
it  perish.  Pierpont,  a  name  unknown  to  her  aristocracy,  not  in 
the  line  of  her  rulers  by  descent,  a  common  man  from  across  the 
mountains,  not  a  native  of  the  soil  he  now  rules,  was  picked  up 
by  the  loyal  Virginians  and  created  her  master  at  the  bidding  of 
national  necessity,  and  because  the  nation  required  that  the  old 
government  of  Virginia  should  cease  to  exist.  States  are  immor 
tal,  but  State  governments,  that  are  organized  by  men,  and  may 
be  used  for  selfish  purposes,  perverted  to  the  purposes  of  treason 
to  defy  the  Union,  are  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States  not  im 
mortal,  but  amenable  to  the  laws  as  men  for  their  acts,  and  die  by 
treason. 

But,  fellow-citizens,  how  have  these  results  been  accomplished? 
Not  by  great  leaders;  not  by  wise  statesmanship;  not  by  far- 
seeing  advisers ;  not  by  generals  of  illustrious  renown,  known  to 
the  world,  whom  it  was  an  honor  to  follow.  "We  had  George 
Washington  provided  to  lead  our  steps  in  infancy,  but  we  had  no 
George  Washington  to  guide  us  through  these  awful  struggles. 
No  William  the  Silent  to  lift  the  standard  before  the  failing  heart 
of  the  people  in  despair ;  no  Richelieu  or  Chatham  to  organize 
victory  by  wise  and  efficient  administration ;  no  far-sighted  Con 
gress  prepared  victory  by  wise  organization  beforehand,  anticipa- 
'  ting  the  wants  of  the  nation.  We  had,  charged  with  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs,  honest,  faithful,  diligent,  devoted,  and  now  mar 
tyred  servants  of  the  republic.  But  they  .did  not  initiate  tKe 
movement  which  led  to  this  great  consummation ;  it  sprang  from 
the  popular  heart,  which  compelled  them  to  make  war ;  the  im 
pulse  came  from  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  they  freely  poured 
out  their  treasure  and  the  blood  needed  to  carry  on  the  war.  It 
was  the  people  who  anticipated  it,  their  instinct  dictated  it,  their 
treasure  supported  it,  and  they  demanded  every  measure,  and 
sustained,  without  a  murmur,  every  disappointment,  and  supplied 
money  to  fill  up  every  waste  and  every  loss.  It  is  the  greatest 
example  in  history  of  a  great  people,  without  leaders,  selecting  its 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  571 

own  instruments  to  accomplish  the  popular  will.  It  was  a  great 
movement  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  nation ;  one  whose  progress 
was  like  the  roll  of  the  great  Mississippi  onward  to  the  Gulf,  irre 
sistible  because  of  its  impetus  and  volume,  and  guided  to  its  end 
by  the  hand  of  God.  It  stands  before  the  world  as  a  solitary  ex 
ample,  beside  the  struggle  of  the  French  Republic,  against  those 
who  sought  its  overthrow. 

We  stand  to-day  before  the  nations  of  the  world  as  the  Amer 
ican  people  never  stood  before.  All  Europe  was  opposed  to  us ; 
they  hastened  to  vest  our  enemies  with  the  rights  of  war ;  they 
threw  open  their  ports  for  their  privateers ;  they  prepared  in  their 
machine-shops  the  materials  for  breaking  our  blockade  ;  they  pre 
pared  the  arms  with  which  our  enemies  fought  us ;  and  for  four 
years  they  fitted  out  ships  of  war,  and  manned  them  with  English 
sailors,  to  depredate  on  our  commerce.  They  had  an  instinctive 
presentiment  that  our  success  was  their  overthrow ;  they  knew 
well  that  if  the  republic  .came  safely  out  from  this  struggle,  it 
would  not  suffice  to  tell  the  people  that  imperialism  alone  could 
keep  order,  that  aristocracy  alone  insured  a  permanent  govern 
ment,  that  hereditary  thrones  alone  could  peacefully  transmit 
power  in  a  government ;  for  they  would  have,  standing  before 
them,  unbroken  in  all  its  gorgeous  panoply  of  war,  and  still  more 
glorious  in  its  civil  garb  than  before,  an  illustrious  example  to  the 
contrary.  They  would  see  thirty  millions  of  American  people 
choosing  their  own  rulers,  dictating  their  policy,  redressing  their 
own  wrongs,  plowing  their  own  lands,  forging  their  own  arms,  fill 
ing  the  ranks  of  their  own  armies,  creating  their  own  generals, 
fighting  their  own  battles,  compelling  submission  to  the  laws  they 
had  made,  and  defying  all  nations  to  arrest  them  in  their  progress. 
They  were  too  sure  of  their  game ;  they  thought  as  the  traitors 
here  thought,  that  the  South  could  not  be  conquered,  and  that  the 
North  would  go  to  pieces  in  the  collision,  and  therefore  held  their 
hands  and  did  not  intervene.  They  thought  our  day  of  doom 
was  come,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  their  error  proved  our  sal 
vation.  But  we  will  remember  that  it  was  their  error  and  not 
their  merit,  and  will  visit  its  consequences  upon  them.  No  soon 
er  did  they  suppose  the  terrors  of  the  American  people  were  gone, 
that  the  great  asgis  of  our  protection  ceased  to  cover  the  repub 
lics  of  America,  than  they  began  their  work.  Spain  seized  upon 
San  Domingo,  her  ancient  colony,  and  invaded  Peru,  whose  inde- 


572  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

pendence  she  had  never  recognized,  reasserting  her  original  title. 
France  and  England,  under  the  pretext  of  playing  the  bailiff  to 
collect  dues  for  their  subjects,  conspired  against  the  republic  in 
Mexico,  and,  under  the  false  pretext  of  carrying  "  order"  into  the 
midst  of  that  distracted  country,  added  new  confusion  to  disturb 
the  quiet  which  was  settling  down  over  that  republic.  Insidiously 
they  wrought  with  an  armed  power.  Under  the  false  pretense  of 
a  desire  to  establish  peace,  they  have  destroyed  the  last  remnants 
of  it,  and  with  it  the  most  free  and  liberal  government  that  had 
ever  attained  a  permanent  foothold  .in  Mexico.  The  Mexicans 
had  just  passed  through  such  a  struggle  as  we  have  here  passed 
through.  Their  collision  was  with  the  Catholic  Church,  with  the 
power  of  the  priesthood,  which  held  three  fourths  of  their  territo 
ry,  just  as  we  have  been  driven  into  collision  with  the  slave  pow 
er,  which  owned  so  much  of  our  territory.  They  had.  succeeded 
in  divesting  that  church  of  its  political  power,  secularizing  its 
lands  and  distributing  them  among  the  people,  and  inaugurated  a 
just  government,  when  Louis  Napoleon,  with  the  purpose  of  lim 
iting  our  expansion  and  strengthening  his  imperial  throne  by  its 
counterpart  in  America,  refused  to  recognize  the  government  of 
Juarez,  imposed  on  the  people  an  Austrian  for  their  master,  sup 
ported  him  by  French  armies,  boasted  that  order  was  founded  in 
Mexico,  and,  with  Mexico  bleeding  at  his  feet,  referred  to  his  name 
and  history  as  a  sufficient  guarantee  that  he  could  impose  no  gov 
ernment  on  the  Mexicans  against  the  will  of  the  nation.  He 
thought  the  world  had  forgotten  December  and  the  Boulevards,  or 
perhaps  they  are  not  in  his  history.  That  mission  of  "  restoring 
order"  was  undertaken  by  our  European  foes,  who  tenderly, 
calmly  advised  that  we  should  not  press  the  South  to  desperation, 
but  should  haste  to  make  terms  lest  we  should  be  destroyed.  We 
dissembled  our  indignation  at  this  grave  menace  and  insult — with 
difficulty,  but  for  the  present  perhaps  not  unwisely ;  but  that  time 
of  trial  to  the  American  republic  is  now  over,  and  the  people  have 
not  forgotten  the  insult,  nor  ceased  to  appreciate  the  greatness  of 
the  danger  to  republican  institutions  involved  in  the  example  of 
an  imperial  throne  standing  on  the  ruins  of  an  American  republic 
supported  by  European  bayonets.  If  necessity  imposed  silence, 
to-day  that  necessity  has  ceased.  When  the  armies  of  Sherman 
and  of  Grant  paraded  before  the  President's  stand  in  Washington, 
in  that  grand  review  after  their  great  victories,  the  representatives 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  573 

of  foreign  powers  stood  at  the  back  of  the  President ;  and  while 
every  European  face  wore  an  aspect  of  polite  resignation,  our 
South  American  friends  were  radiant  with  joy,  and  avowed  that 
our  triumph  was  theirs.  And  whether  it  be  to-day,  or  to-morrow, 
or  next  month,  or  next  year ;  whether  Louis  Napoleon  shall  suc 
ceed  or  not  in  consolidating  tlie  throne  of  Maximilian  ;  no  matter 
who  may  be  in  power,  or  who  may  assume  to  control  the  desti 
nies  of  this  nation ;  no  matter  who  may  attempt  to  stop  its  onward 
march,  or  preach  moderation  or  the  danger  of  perpetual  war,  the 
introduction  of  a  European  prince  into  an  American  republic  for 
the  purpose  of  founding  on  its  ruins  a  hereditary  throne  is  an  in 
solent  defiance  of  the  declaration  of  President  Monroe,  and  the 
American  people  are  pledged  to  resent  it.  It  is  vain  to  attempt 
to  adduce  to  us  evidence  that  Mexico  assents ;  there  is  no  dissent 
with  the  bayonet  at  the  throat.  No  argument  can  be  permitted 
to  prove  that  submission  to  armed  force  is  free  choice.  Let  them 
withdraw  their  armies.  Let  them  leave  Mexico.  If  they  don't 
like  the  state  of  anarchy,  which  prevails  there,  let  them  leave  it  to 
its  normal  condition.  It  is  not  their  right  to  interfere  with  the 
internal  affairs  of  Mexico.  It  is  a  perpetual  menace  to  us.  If 
they  need  order,  we  prefer  a  different  neighbor  to  Louis  Napo 
leon,  the  liberal  Emperor  of  France.  "We  wish  for  no  conquests, 
but  we  have  established  freedom  here,  and  we  will  have  freedom 
from  here  to  Cape  Horn.  I  desire  no  policy  of  conquest.  I 
merely  stand  where  President  Monroe  stood,  where  Henry  Clay 
stood,  where  Daniel  Webster  stood,  where  the  Congress  of  '26 
stood,  which  sanctioned  the  Panama  mission,  in  the  application  of 
this  principle  to  Mexico,  that  the  people  are  entitled  to  work  out 
their  own  salvation  in  such  form  as  they  may  see  fit,  and  that  Eu 
ropean  meddling  with  them  is  a  menace  to  us.  But  we  do  not 
recognize  a  monarchical  power  as  a  good  nurse  to  put  a  republic 
to.  These  are  the  first  results  of  the  war. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  stand  again  in  all  our  integrity  and  power 
before  the  nations  of  the  world,  desiring  to  war  with  nobody,  but 
remembering  that  in  our  hour  of  need  men  tried  to  destroy  us. 
Desiring  to  observe  all  the  laws  of  neutrality,  we  are  resolved  that 
England  shall  accept  and  respect  her  own  neutrality  laws.  Any 
rule  will  suit  the  American  people  except  the  insolence  and  ca 
price  of  a  power  presuming  to  domineer  over  us. 

But,  fellow-citizens,  the  war  has  taught  other  lessons  than  these. 


574  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAE,  ETC. 

It  has  taught  us  lessons  we  must  perforce  read  and  remember, 
whether  we  would  or  not.  Why  is  it  that  the  American  repub 
lic,  so  peaceful,  so  just,  so  moderate,  so  wise,  as  it  heretofore  has 
been  for  eighty  years  of  unbroken  internal  quiet,  has  been  for  the 
first  time  plunged  into  civil  war  ?  It  is  because  we  embodied  in 
our  institutions  one  which  was  not  reconcilable  with  the  princi 
ples  on  which  they  all  rest.  The  unanimous  declaration  of  the 
thirteen  colonies  of  America  consecrated  forever  as  the  ground 
work  of  the  nation  the  principles  of  personal  freedom  and  govern 
ment  by  law.  Government  by  law  we  secured  in  the  Constitu 
tion,  personal  freedom  we  sacrificed  to  an  existing  interest,  sup 
posed  to  be  temporary,  admitted  to  be  wrong,  difficult  of  remedy, 
but  to  be  remedied.  But  the  expansion  of  our  territory  inspired 
that  interest  as  it  grew  in  strength,  first  with  a  desire  for  perma 
nence,  then  with  a  desire  for  power.  The  addition  of  the  great 
regions  of  Florida  and  Louisiana  to  the  domain  of  the  United 
States  fired  the  blood  of  its  supporters  with  the  determination  of 
ruling.  It  was  resolved  by  them  to  become  a  power,  and  cease  to 
be  merely  an  interest.  It  could  be  tolerated  as  an  interest,  it 
could  not  be  tolerated  as  a  power,  which  by  political  coalition  be 
came  the  dominant  power  of  the  nation.  It  first  asserted  itself  as 
a  power  in  the  great  Missouri  Compromise  so  long  worshiped  by 
all  men  as  the  emblem  of  our  peace.  Texas  was  its  conquest. 
The  compromise  of  1850  was  the  recognition  of 'its  equality  with 
freedom  in  disposing  of  the  fortunes  and  fate  of  the  nation.  The 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  its  assertion,  not  merely 
that  it  was  a  power,  but  that  it  had  power  to  rule.  The  war  in 
Kansas  was  its  struggle  to  assert,  against  a  reluctant  people,  its 
right  to  rule.  The  Dred  Scott  decision  was  the  sanction  of  its 
most  insolent  claims  by  the  supreme  judicial  authority  of  the  na 
tion,  before  which  bowed  every  dissenting  voice  in  the  South.  It 
had  made  for  itself  a  permanent  home  in  the  South,  a  home  full 
of  ideas  and  arguments  for  its  maintenance  and  advancement ;  it 
seized  upon  and  taught  the  doctrine  of  State  rights  as  one  of  its 
bulwarks ;  it  cultivated  submission  to  the  local  authorities,  so  that 
in  case  of  collision  the  men  of  the  South  might  prefer  their  State 
to  the  nation.  Slavery  was  first  wrong,  then  excusable,  then  de 
fensible,  then  defended  by  scriptural,  historical,  and  political  argu 
ments,  then  advocated  and  vaunted  as  the  highest  development  of 
the  social  organization,  Every  principle  of  human  reason  was 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAK,  ETC.  575 

confounded  in  this  deliberate  attempt  to  make  right  of  a  wrong. 
It  created  a  new  theology,  a  new  history,  a  new  ethnology  for 
itself.  The  Southern  ethnology  separated  the  negro  from  the 
human  race;  the  Southern  religion  proclaimed  the  slave-trade  a 
missionary  enterprise ;  the  new  Southern  morals  proclaimed  the 
duty  of  holding  the  negro,  for  his  own  benefit,  as  the  highest  of 
moral  obligations ;  the  new  Southern  theodicy  deduced  the  high 
est  proofs  of  the  wisdom  of  God  from  his  placing  the  black  man 
in  subjection  to  the  white ;  the  new  Southern  history  made  the 
chief  purpose  of  the  Constitution  the  protection  of  this  interest; 
the  new  Southern  political  economy  professed  to  have  found  in 
negro  slavery  that  organization  of  labor  for  which  the  Old  World 
had  so  long  striven  in  vain ;  the  new  Southern  political  philoso 
phy  added  to  Jefferson's  enumeration  of  the  inalienable  rights  of 
man  that  of  the  negro  to  a  master.  Admitted  to  be  wrong,  it  was 
weak ;  when  merely  excusable,  the  time  would  come  when  it 
would  cease  to  be  excused ;  admitted  defensible,  it  was  still  on 
the  defensive ;  but  as  &poiuer  it  could  control  and  assume  its  own 
position.  Thus  this  interest,  a  flaw  at  first  in  the  foundation  of 
our  great  national  temple  of  freedom,  undermined  its  foundation, 
and  threatened  its  overthrow.  It  was  no  longer  an  interest,  but 
a  power,  ready  to  fight  for  empire,  to  assert  in  arms  its  authority. 
Fearful  that  the  intrusion  of  new  ideas  might  breed  doubts,  they 
surrounded  their  territory  with  Gorgons,  hydras,  chimeras  dire,  to 
repel  Northern  men :  white  men  with  free  ideas  could  not  work 
in  the  South;  the  Southern  sun  was  fatal  to  the  men  of  the 
North ;  the  frightful  pestilence  walked  in  darkness  to  smite  the 
stranger  who  ventured  among  them.  They  dreaded  the  intrusive 
eye  of  freedom,  tolerated  it  only  blindfold,  and  thus,  firmly  im 
bued  with  convictions  scientifically  and  logically  wrought  into  a 
social  system,  strong  in  arguments  for  its  support,  at  peace  with 
their  consciences,  given  over  to  believe  a  lie,  a  territory  equal  in 
area  to  the  greatest  empire  in  the  world,  filled  with  an  energetic, 
brilliant,  brave,  and  devoted  people,  educated  in  the  idea  that  the 
State  is  supreme  and  could  secede  at  will,  and  that  even  if  the 
State  had  not  that  right,  it  could  sanction,  and  by  its  authority, 
which  they  were  bound  to  obey,  excuse  all  who  under  its  bidding 
took  arms  against  the  nation ;  armed  against  moral  reprobation 
by  pride,  strong  against  the  laws  of  the  land  in  arms,  in  the  sym 
pathy  of  many  at  the  North,  in  a  generation  educated  and  devoted 


576  LESSORS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

to  those  ideas  for  which  they  were  ready  to  die,  they  drew  the 
sword,  throwing  away  the  scabbard,  to  assert  that  slavery  is  the 
true  corner-stone  of  freedom.  That  corner-stone  on  which  they 
sought  to  raise  a  new  empire  now  lies  crumbled  and  shattered 
under  the  feet  of  advancing  freedom. 

In  the  stagnant  East  these  ideas  could  have  lain  side  by  side 
for  generations,  sleeping  quietly  as  twin  brothers ;  for  there,  des 
potism  and  slavery  are  as  eternal  as  its  deserts,  and  as  shifting  as 
their  sands ;  but  in  the  fruitful  and  teeming  West,  the  sun  makes 
the  tare  grow  as  rankly  and  rapidly  as  the  wheat.  The  same  sun 
ripens  the  weeds  and  the  corn  together,  and  when  the  seed  of  the 
evil  weeds  are  sown,  they  will  come  to  maturity  and  destroy  the 
good  grain  if  the  husbandman  does  not  pluck  them  out.  This  has 
been  our  task  for  the  four  years  past.  During  that  time  we  have 
been  persuaded  by  those  who  live  far  from  the  South,  who  know 
nothing  of  its  moral  atmosphere,  nothing  of  the  impulses  which 
drive  its  people  to  action,  that  these  men  could  be  conciliated,  that 
we  could  make  compromises  with  them.  They  said,  strike  the 
arms  from  their  hands  and  they  would  thenceforth  quietly  submit. 
It  would  suffice  that  the  loyal  men  of  the  South  should  be  armed, 
and  the  disloyal  trodden  down,  to  insure  security  for  the  future. 
What  does  history  say  of  these  views  of  Southern  temper  ?  There 
was  not  even  an  assault  and  battery  committed  on  behalf  of  the 
United  States,  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Where 
then  were  the  loyal  friends  of  the  government?  There  were 
Union  men ;  but  you  must  translate  that  into  the  language  of  the 
South.  There  were  many  among  them  who  preferred  that  the 
government  should  not  be  broken  up,  but  if  it  were  to  be  broken 
up  they  were  for  the  South.  They  preferred  that  there  should 
be  peace ;  they  were  willing  to  vote  that  peace  should  continue, 
and  with  it  the  Union ;  but  if  it  were  to  be  broken,  then  they 
would  not  fight  against  their  brethren  at  home  for  the  mainte 
nance  of  the  Union.  They  preferred  peace  at  home  and  war  with 
the  United  States,  to  war  at  home  and  peace  with  the  United 
States.  They  loved  the  government,  but  they  loved  their  State 
better;  they  were  devoted  to  the  nation,  but  more  to  their  State. 
"  Oar  people"  was  the  phrase  by  which  they  designated  the  men 
of  their  own  State,  and  "our  enemies"  that  by  which  they  spoke 
of  those  born  under  the  same  paternal  government  with  them,  the 
loyal  men  of  the  North.  This  temper  of  mind  has  not  changed, 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  577 

and  any  man,  in  authority  or  out  of  authority,  who  supposes  that 
repentance  has  come  by  castigation,  misreads  the  minds  of  the 
men  of  his  own  time,  and  is  preparing  ruin  for  himself  and  his 
land.  If  the  question  be  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  Southern 
people  to-day  whether  they  will  remain  a  part  of  the  United  States 
and  celebrate  with  us  this  glorious  day,  or  expunge  from  their 
calendar  the  Fourth  of  July,  expurgate  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  restore  their  slavery  system,  and  form  an  independent 
government,  the  vote  would  be  overwhelming  and  unprecedented 
in  favor  of  independence.  If  that  is  the  sentiment  of  the  South 
ern  people,  men  of  America,  look  well  where  you  tread.  There 
is  doubtless  a  division  among  them,  but  it  is  a  division  of  political 
parties,  more  or  less  devoted  to  Southern  ideas  and  Southern  pow 
er.  Those  who  acquiesce  readily,  and  those  who  acquiesce  only 
under  coercion — those  who  consider  their  cause  hopeless  and  are 
disposed  to  put  the  best  face  they  can  upon  it,  and  those  who  lie 
down  to  sleep  with  hatred  in  their  hearts,  and  wake  up  to  invite  a 
French  or  English  army  to  join  with  them  in  the  destruction  of 
the  republic  —  these  are  the  only  divisions.  I  know  the  noble 
names  of  Petigru  and  Joshua  Hill ;  and  when  I  have  named  these 
men,  and  added  to  them  John  Minor  Botts  and  Governor  Aiken, 
I  name  all  I  know  in  all  the  Southern  country  who  have  been  so 
far  friends  of  the  nation  that  they  closed  their  mouths,  bowed 
their  heads,  and  allowed  the  waters  of  strife  to  pass  over  them, 
trusting  to  God  whether  they  should  survive  or  perish. 

To  that  people  our  rulers  are  now  proposing  to  extend  the 
privilege  of  governing  themselves  and  us — themselves  and  us  ! ! 
There  are  precautions  to  be  taken  for  the  future,  fellow-citizens. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  "  making  haste  slowly."  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  allowing  men's  tempers  to  cool,  time  to  develop  their 
purposes,  time  to  pick  out  instruments  on  whom  you  can  rely,  to 
count  heads  and  see  where  an  election  will  land  you.  Do  not 
then  hasten  it.  Eeinstated  to-day  in  authority,  read  the  transac 
tions  of  the  loyal  Legislature  of  Virginia,  and  tell  me  how  you  are 
to  get  cordial  support  and  sympathy  from  such  men — men  burn 
ing  with  the  passion  of  the  'war  in  every  branch  ;  the  men  who 
are  known  enemies  to  the  government  every  where  elected  to  of 
fices  in  every  department  of  authority  except  the  powerless,  im 
potent,  and  deluded  governor.  Every  attempt  to  discriminate 
loyal  from  disloyal  was  hooted  down  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye 

02 


578  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

at  the  first  session  ;  mocking  and  jeering  at- the  oath  which  was 
meant  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false,  the  "  test"  oath  was 
known  as  the  "  detested"  oath  in  the  vocabulary  of  loyal,  reor 
ganized  Virginia.  There  are  therefore  precautions  absolutely 
necessary. 

We  have  disposed  of  the  doctrine  of  secession  by  the  bayonet ; 
but  that  their  acute  legal  suggestion — that  although  the  State  has 
not  the  right  to  rebel,  yet  the  citizens  are  bound  to  obey  it,  and  it 
will  stand  between  them  and  responsibility  incurred  in  fighting 
for  it  against  the  nation — maybe  effectually  put  down,  it  must  be 
refuted,  as  it  only  can  be,  by  the  judgment  of  death  on  their  lead 
ing  traitor.  I  am  not  bloody-minded,  gentlemen,  and  I  think 
mere  personal  punishment  at  the  end  of  a  war  in  which  two  or 
three  hundred  thousand  men  have  been  laid  in  bloody  graves  has 
no  relation  to  the  ordinary  purposes  of  punishment.  If  you  could 
punish  so  as  to  break  and  destroy  the  power  of  the  "  aristocracy" 
which  inaugurated  the  war,  it  were  well ;  but  Congress  has  re 
fused  to  pass  the  law  which  deprived  them  of  their  citizenship, 
and  now  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  forbids  it,  the  opportunity 
is  gone,  and  gone  forever.  They  have  suffered,  and  suffered  much, 
by  the  confiscation  of  their  slaves.  But  the  mere  hanging  of  men 
has  no  power  to  prevent  such  a  rebellion  as  this,  wherein  men 
have  staked  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  on  the  issue  and  died 
glorying  in  their  cause.  By  hanging  them  you  would  be  only 
multiplying  the  number  of  martyrs  without  materially  diminish 
ing  that  of  criminals.  But  they  should  be  stamped  with  the  foul 
brand  of  treason,  not  allowed  to  glory  over  their  struggle  against 
the  nation,  to  remain  the  heroes  of  the  South,  as  they  are  at  this 
day.  When  the  vanquished  rebel  can  hang  his  sword  over  his 
door,  and  in  after  years  boast  of  it  to  his  grandchildren,  you  have 
left  the  seeds  of  future  rebellion,  the  temptation  of  impunity  for 
the  future ;  and  it  is  material  that  these  great  words  of  the  Con 
stitution,  "  that  this  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
made  in  pursuance  thereof,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land," 
shall  be  understood  to  mean  what  they  say,  to  be  resisted  by  no 
wire-drawn  pleas,  to  be  avoided  by  no  plea  of  State  rights,  to  be 
stripped  of  authority  by  no  impunity  claimed  under  any  obliga 
tion  to 'obey  the  Constitution  of  the  State  ;  so  that  the  man  who 
takes  his  musket  to  resist  it  shall  know  that  he  commits  the  crime, 
and  not  his  State.  The  judgment  of  the  court  will  clear  him  of 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  579 

every  delusion  on  the  subject,  so  that  hereafter  he  will  not  be 
troubled  by  metaphysical  arguments  on  State  rights,  which  are 
national  wrongs,  but  he  may  go  to  his  doom  justly,  as  well  as  le 
gally.  The  kindly  advice  of  our  English  cousins  and  our  French 
friends,  preaching  moderation  in  the  hour  of  victory,  is  good,  but 
we  can  not  but  remember  that  their  friends  are  those  who  are  to 
suffer.  Hopes  of  foreign  aid  from  those  powers  weighed  heavily 
in  causing  the  rebellion,  and  they  naturally  have  an  interest  in 
preventing  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  from  falling  on  the 
heads  of  those  they  tempted  and  deserted.  We  can  understand 
that  they  have  an  interest  in  still  keeping  open  a  cleavage  in  the 
fast-closing  rock  of  the  republic,  wherein  foreign  powers  may 
again  force  a  lever  to  shake  the  republic  to  its  foundations.  Fel 
low-citizens,  when  we  feel  the  need  of  it,  we  will  ask  their  advice, 
but  we  look  alone  to  our  laws  for  the  rule  of  our  action,  and  to  the 
moderation  of  the  people  to  prevent  the  stain  of  useless  blood 
upon  our  hands.  Let  England  remember  Napoleon,  and  Emmett, 
and  O'Brien ;  the  massacred  Indians,  who  only  fought  to  throw 
off  a  foreign  yoke,  which  England  feared  we  would  impose  upon 
the  South.  Let  Louis  Napoleon,  too,  remember  Ney  and  Abd  el 
Kader,  the  massacre  of  the  Boulevards  and  the  deportation  o"f  one 
half  the  members  of  the  Assembly  of  France,  as  the  measure  of 
French  mercy.  We  are  to-day  a  nation  in  spite  of  their  advice, 
their  enmity,  and  their  efforts :  silence  would  better  become  them, 
saving  us  the  trouble  of  flinging  their  crimes  in  their  teeth,  to  ex 
pose  the  motives  of  their  unasked  advice. 

That  disposes  of  one  great  precautionary  measure. 

We  can  not  govern  this  immense  region  by  military  power. 
That  would  be  to  create  proconsuls  to  whom  armies  will  become 
devoted,  in  whom  the  spirit  of  ambitious  power  will  grow  and  be 
come  strong,  and  one  of  wh^m  may,  like  Ca3sar,  march  across  the 
Eubicon  on  the  insidious  pretext  of  the  public  good,  when  Amer 
ica  may  be  as  Eome  was.  Military  government  in  vast  regions 
of  territory,  over  great  populations,  is  inconsistent  not  only  with 
the  principles  of  our  institutions,  but  with  the  permanence  .and 
integrity  of  the  American  government,  and  therefore  must  be  ex 
cluded  from  every  body's  mind.  If  you  wish  a  temporary  civil 
government,  let  it  be  organized  ly  law ;  but  we  must  recognize 
not  only  personal  freedom,  but  the  principles  of  self-government — the 
right  of  the  PEOPLE  to  rule.  We  want  no  rebel  State  govern- 


580  LESSONS  OP  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

rnent ;  we  want  still  less  a  military  government ;  a  rebel  govern 
ment  is  safer  than  a  military  government.  "We  do  not  want  oli 
garchies  of  professed  Union  men,  who  have  been  so  low  down  out 
of  sight  that  nobody  can  divine  their  relations  to  the  rebellion,  or 
men  who  treacherously  sympathized  with  the  power  that  was,  and 
now  meanly  seek  to  serve  the  power  that  is.  We  want  the  free 
government  of  the  loyal  men  of  the  South  who  are  on  our  side, 
who  will  draw  the  sword  for  us,  and  will  maintain  our  rights 
where  they  are  threatened,  and  are  powerful  enough  to  maintain 
the  authority  of  the  State  government  at  home.  There  is  no  white 
population  at  the  South,  no  great  mass  of  it  any  where,  who  will 
conform  to  these  conditions.  After  you  have  erased  from  the  list 
of  voters  every  man  you  can  clearly  prove  to  have  been  a  seces 
sionist,  after  you  have  sifted  clear  all  you  can  call  the  loyal  men, 
you  have  men  who  have  sympathized  with  rebellion,  have  given 
it  their  countenance,  if  not  their  active  aid,  by  their  arms  and  their 
money ;  can  they  be  relied  on  in  any  emergency  ?  The  Seces 
sionists  of  the  South  are  the  heroes  of  the  South,  toasted,  feted, 
worshiped.  This  day  Eobert  IJ.  Lee  could  carry  every  electoral 
vote  of  every  Southern  State  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States,  and  I  would  not  swear  he  could  not  carry  some  Northern 
States  I  could  name.  Under  a  reorganization  on  the  basis  of  the 
white  population,  the  South  will  be  more  united  and  powerful 
than  when  she  drew  the  sword. 

But  there  is  a  mass  of  population  there  that  is  on  the  side  of 
the  United  States,  against  all  white  men  at  the  South,  whether 
Union  or  Secession,  who  to-day  have  a  part  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  which  they  never  had  before,  and  which  they  have 
earned  on  the  battle-field  by  the  side  of  these  gentlemen  bearing 
the  uniforms  of  the  nation.  On  many  a  bloody  battle-field  they 
have  proven  that  they  are  men,  nctf  beasts.  Will  any  body  on 
this  subject  venture  to  moot  the  small  paltry  question  that  hith 
erto  has  divided  Illinois,  and  wearied  the  people  of  other  States, 
touching  the  voting  of  a  handful  of  negroes  lost  in  the  midst  of 
white  millions  ?  Is  that  the  way  to  state  a  grave  national  ques 
tion?  or  is  it  wise  in  these  gentlemen  of  the  abolition  schools  to 
be  always  talking  of  justice  and  humanity  to  the  negro  ?  as  if  jus 
tice  or  humanity  ever  determined  any  great  question  in  the  world, 
or  as  if  it  were  the  rights  of  the  negro,  not  our  safety,  which  is  at 
stake!  It  is  not  a  question  of  justice,  but  of  political  dynamics. 


LESSONS  OF  THE  WAE,  ETC.  581 

It  is  a  question  of  power,  not  of  right — a  question  of  salvation, 
not  of  morals.  The  alternatives  are  before  us  of  a  republican 
friendly  government,  or  a  hostile  oligarchy  in  the  South. 

No  State  government  has  ever  been  recognized  which  ostra 
cized  a  majority  or  any  great  mass  of  the  people.  "When  slavery 
existed,  slaves  were  merged  in  the  master.  But  the  right  of  the 
State  to  ostracize  a  great  mass  of  free  negroes  has  never  been  rec 
ognized.  They  were  a  handful  every  where  but  in  Maryland — 
and  there  they  voted  with  the  whites  on  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  If  this  precedent  be  set  now,  it  is  for  the  first 
time  to  be  set.  When  negroes  become  free,  they  become  a  part 
of  the  people  of  the  nation,  and  to  ostracize  them  is  to  sanction  a 
principle  fatal  to  American  free  government. 

In  South  Carolina  there  are  twice  as  many  negroes  as  whites ; 
in  Mississippi  there  are  more  negroes  than  whites ;  in  Alabama, 
in  Louisiana,  and  in  Georgia  they  are  nearly  equal.  They  are 
now  in  sufficient  numbers  at  the  South  to  control  the  result  of  any 
election.  "  They  will  vote  with  their  masters,"  insidious  gentle 
men  tell  us  ;  then  at  least  let  their  masters  be  under  the  necessity 
of  touching  their  hats  to  them  to  get  their  votes.  "  They  are  not 
intelligent  enough  to  vote,"  another  says.  They  know,  fellow- 
citizens,  a  gray  uniform  from  a  blue  one.  They  know  a  Yankee 
from  their  masters.  They  have  fought  well  under  Yankee  lead 
ership  ;  maybe  they  can  vote  as  intelligently  under  Yankee  lead 
ership.  They  are  not  spread  in  equal  masses  over  the  Southern 
country,  but  they  are  congregated  in  particular  districts  that  bor 
der  the  Atlantic,  the  Gulf,  and  the  Mississippi,  and  are  in  immense 
majorities  in  fully  one  third  of  the  congressional  districts  of  the 
South.  They  can  break  the  terrible  unity  of  the  Southern  vote 
that  plunged  us  into  the  rebellion.  Men  who  are  not  capable  of 
understanding  considerations  like  these  had  better  go  and  whine 
about  negro  votes.  I  have  seen  about  as  much  of  negroes  as  any 
of  you,  have  lived  as  near  them,  and  suppose  I  have  as  much  prej 
udice  toward  them  as  any  of  you ;  but  to  talk  of  this  after  we 
have  had  to  call  them  to  our  aid  in  putting  down  the  rebellion,  is 
either  driveling  folly  or  infinite  meanness.  If  you  did  not  wish 
to  have  the  negro  hereafter  enjoy  the  rights  of  a  man,  why  did 
you  bring  him  on  the  battle-field  ?  You,  white  men  of  Illinois, 
why  did  you  not  have  the  quota  of  your  State  increased,  so  that 
the  negro  should  not  be  needed  ?  We  of  Maryland  carried  eman- 


532  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC. 

cipation  by  going  to  the  poor  white  men  in  the  southern  portion 
of  the  State,  and  showing  them  that  the  negro  could  relieve  them 
from  military  service.  They  did  not  stop  to  discuss  his  right  to 
political  privileges  then.  If  he  is  their  and  your  equal  on  the 
battle-field,  in  the  service  of  the  country,  he  is,  and  should  be,  at 
the  ballot-box ;  and  if  he  is  not  your  equal  on  the  battle-field, 
then  you  have  cheated  the  United  States,  to  the  injury  of  the  na 
tional  cause,  to  save  yourselves  from  service. 

There  is  nothing  in  President  Johnson's  proclamation  which 
assumes  to  conclude  the  judgment  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  on  the  recognition  of  State  governments  in  the  rebel  States. 
He  may  have  had  more  confidence  in  the  white  people  of  the 
South  than  I  have — he  may  have  desired  to  give  them  a  golden 
opportunity  of  refuting  every  slander  and  silencing  every  doubt 
regarding  their  loyalty.  He  might  have  a  hope  that  when  they 
should  be  called  upon  to  vote  on  their  Constitutions  under  his 
proclamation,  to  be  ready  to  present  them  to  Congress  in  the  form 
of  petitions,  for  they  would  be  nothing  else  ;  that,  seeing  the  signs 
of  the  times,  and  what  justice  and  humanity  require,  or  rather 
what  the  people  of  the  North  will  suppose  their  safety  requires, 
they  would  incorporate  universal  suffrage  as  the  basis  of  their 
Constitutions.  I  shall  rejoice  with  him  if  that  result  shall  come 
about,  but  I  am  far  from  expecting  it.  I  will  believe,  until  I  learn 
the  contrary,  that  that  was  his  purpose.  I  will  not  believe  the 
declaration  of  any  person  who  says  he  is  opposed  to  it.  He  knows 
that  the  only  authority  that  can  recognize  State  governments  at 
the  "South  is  the  Congress  which  admits  their  representatives  and 
senators  ;  that  it  must  judge  of  the  republicanism  of  their  form 
of  government.  I  turn  to  that  august  assembly  with  some  doubt, 
but  with  earnest  hopes,  and  I  appeal  to  it  to  be  ready  for  any 
emergency,  to  be  caught  by  no  snare,  to  yield  to  no  solicitations ; 
not  to  take  any  man's  declaration  as  to  the  safety  of  trusting  the 
whole  mass  of  the  rebels  of  the  South  with  the  control  of  the 
Southern  States,  but  to  remember  that  a  revolutionary  minority 
can  and  will  throw  almost  insurmountable  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  legislation  ;  that  the  Southern  delegations,  joined  with  interest 
ed  and  discontented  men  from  the  North,  may  clog  and  even  ar 
rest  the  wheels  of  government  on  any  bill ;  that  they  can  organ 
ize  a  powerful  opposition  to  the  payment  of  our  national  debt,  and 
the  imposition  of  taxes,  unless  we  agree  to  their  demands  to  rein- 


•LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.  583 

state  rebel  officers,  place  their  wounded  on  your  pension  lists,  or 
indemnify  slaveholders  for  their  slaves.  I  pray  these  gentlemen 
to  look  this  thing  in  the  eye,  and  if  they  have  no  regard  for  "jus 
tice  and  humanity,"  I  would  say  to  them,  I,  like  you,  gentlemen, 
am-  no  enthusiast.  I  am  very  little  of  a  philanthropist.  I  am 
not  convinced  of  the  intellectual  superiority  of  the  negro  over  the 
white ;  but  I  know  that  his-  vote  is  important,  and  if  I  have  not 
much  respect  for  justice  and  humanity,  I  have 'great  regard  for  the 
5-20s ;  I  have  great  respect  for  the  integrity  of  the  government 
and  the  possibility  of  carrying  on  its  machinery.  If  the  Constitu 
tions  do  not  give  the  mass  of  the  negroes  the  right  of  voting  on 
equal  terms  with  the  loyal  white  men  (not  those  who  can  read, 
where  it  has  been  a  penitentiary  offense  to  teach  one  to  read  for 
twenty  years — that  is  trifling  with  grave  matters — but  that  mass 
of  the  negro  population  whom  we  subjected  to  the  draft,  and  at 
whose  hands  we  sought  aid  in  our  hour  of  weakness)  the  safety 
of  the  nation  requires,  republican  principles  require,  that  no  such 
government  shall  be  recognized  as  republican  in  form,  that  no 
representative  or  senator  from  such  a  State  shall  be  admitted  to 
either  House,  or  even  complimented  with  the  privileges  of  the 
floor. 

We  need  the  votes  of  all  the  colored  people ;  it  is  numbers,  not 
intelligence,  that  count  at  the  ballot-box ;  it  is  right  intention,  and 
not  philosophic  judgment,  that  casts  the  vote.  More  glorious 
still  would  it  be  for  Congress  to  follow  the  great  example  we 
have  just  set,  of  abolishing  slavery  by  an  amendment  of  the  Con 
stitution.  Let  it  pass  by  a  two-thirds  majority,  in  both  houses  of 
Congress,  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  consecrating  forever 
the  mass  of  the  people  as  the  basis  of  the  republican  government 
of  the  United  States,  and  submit  it  this  very  coming  winter,  be 
fore  the  Legislatures  adjourn,  for  their  ratification.  And  when  it 
shall  have  received  the  assent  of  three  fourths  of  those  now  rep 
resented  in  Congress,  let  Congress  instantly  proclaim  it  as  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  land,  valid  and  binding  as  the  Constitu 
tion  itselfj  of  which  they  will  thus  have  made  i't  a  part,  under 
which  they  sit,  of  which  no  State  caprice,  no  question  of  political 
parties,  nothing  in  the  future,  except  the  triumph  of  slavery  over 
free  institutions,  can  ever  shake  or  call  in  question.  Then  all  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  will  be  executed ; 
this  government  will  rest  on  the  right  of  individual  liberty,  and 


584  LESSONS  OF  THE  WAR,  ETC.* 

the  right  of  every  man  to  bear  a  share  in  the  government  of  the 
country  whose  laws  he  obeys  and  whose  bayonet  in  the  hour  of 
danger  he  bears.  And  the  personal  freedom  which  the  dark 
children  of  the  republic  have  won  by  our  blood  and  theirs  will 
not  be  a  vain  mockery,  exposed  to  violation  at  the  caprice  of  their 
masters,  enthroned  in  the  Legislature,  on  the  bench,  and  in  the 
executive  chamber,  but,  secured  by  -the  arms  they  hold  and  the 
ballot  they  cast,  wiH  be  Liberty  guarded  by  Power, 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE 
IN  RECONSTRUCTION. 

IN  October  Mr.  Davis  again  published  his  views  in  relation  to  the  re 
construction  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  insisting  on  the  necessity 
of  suffrage  for  the  colored  race  as  an  indispensable  condition  in  re-estab 
lishing  the  federal  relations  of  those  States. 

His  letter  was  addressed  to  the  editor  of  the  (New  York)  Nation,  and 
appeared  in  that  journal  in  the  form  here  following.  It  is  the  last  paper 

on  any  public  matter  which  he  wrote  or  designed  for  publication. 

I 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Nation  : 

My  extreme  reluctance  to  intrude  on  the  public  where  I  am 
not  responsible  for  results  has  hitherto  withheld  me  from  offering 
to  you  the  following  communication. 

The  Connecticut  vote  has  solved  my  doubts  and  removed  my 
hesitations.  It  reveals  the  fact  tbat  the  great  body  of  the  Kepub- 
licans  are  true  to  their  principles,  but  that  there  is  an  unreliable 
minority  in  our  ranks  willing  to  unite  with  the  enemies  of  the 
country  to  prevent  us  from  consolidating  our  victory  and  secur 
ing  its  fruits.  These  two  elements  will,  I  fear,  be  found  to  divide 
our  friends  in  Congress.  Our  great  majority  there  can  be  broken 
only  by  a  great  desertion.  A  few  we  may  expect  to  be  disloyal. 
We  may  trust,  however,  that  enough  will  not  join  those  who  have 
vilified  us  for  four  years  to  place  them  in  control  of  the  houses. 
If  they  do,  then  Connecticut  is  the  emblem  of  the  fate  of  our  cause, 
and  the  same  coalition  which  perpetuated  there  the  seeds  of  dis 
cord  will  prevent  our  rooting  them  out  forever  from  the  nation. 

In  Connecticut  no  practical  importance  attaches  to  the  negro 
vote,  and  old  prejudice  was  free  to  assert  its  power.  But  in  the 
Southern  States  lately  in  rebellion  the  negro  population  is  a  con 
trolling  power  j  if  properly  organized,  and  endowed  with  arms  and 
ballots.  It  is  the  only  power  on  which  the"  United  States  can  rely 
there  in  the  event  of  a  renewed  rebellion.  It  is  the  only  body  of 
people  who  can  give  the  white  minority  of  loyal  men  a  voice  in 
the  nation,  and  prevent  them  from  being  overwhelmed  and  ostra- 


586          THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

cized  by  the  hostile  majority.  It  is  the  only  body  of  natural 
friends  of  the  United  States  in  all  those  States,  for  it's  freedom  de 
pends  on  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  It  is  the  only  body  from 
which  a  Eepublican  vote  can  be  expected  in  any  of  those  States, 
for  the  mass  of  whites,  loyal  as  well  as  disloyal,  hate  and  vilify 
us,  while  the  negroes  know  that  their  liberty  is  our  gift,  and  that 
as  surely  as  it  would  cease  on  disunion,  so  surely  its  safety  and 
enjoyment  would  be  jeoparded  and  impaired  by  the  accession  to 
power  in  the  United  States  of  the  old  coalition  of  their  masters  in 
possession  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  Democrats  holding 
enough  of  the  Northern  States  to  elect  a  President  or  control  ei 
ther  house  of  Congress. 

The  tone  of  the  Southern  press — now  merely  muttering  be 
tween  bayonets — is  that  of  execration  against  the  Eepublicans, 
while  unanimous  in  supporting  the  President  they  elected;  and 
to  overlook  this  manifestation  of  Southern  tenjper  in  dealing  with 
their  restoration  to  political  power  is  to  seal  our  own  death-war 
rant,  and  secure  the  triumph  of  our  opponents  and  of  the  enemies 
of  the  country  for  a  generation.  This  grave  question  is  to  be  set 
tled  within  the  next  session  of  Congress,  and  probably  in  its  ear 
lier  weeks.  They  who  elected  the  President  stood  confounded 
and  divided  by  the  policy  he  has  dictated  to  them  for  its  solution. 
The  North  Carolina  proclamation  they  tolerated  as  an  experi 
ment,  till  it  has  indurated  into  a  policy  executed  in  every  State 
which  rebelled,  and  supported  by  every  Northern  Democrat  and 
every  rebel  pretending  to  loyalty.  In  words,  the  proclamations 
summon  that  "  portion  of  the  people  who  are  loyal"  to  reorganize 
the  State  governments ;  but  in  reality  they  exclude  the  whole 
negro  population,  half  the  aggregate  population,  and  nearly  the 
whole  of  those  who  have  always  been  loyal  in  those  States.  Un 
der  these  proclamations,  therefore,  no  republican  form  of  government  is 
possible. 

The  only  alternatives  are  an  oligarchy  of  loyal  whites  or  an  ar 
istocracy  of  hostile  whites.  The  one  is  loyal,  but  is  not  republi 
can  ;  the  other  is  neither  loyal  nor  republican.  The  former  Pres 
ident  Lincoln  organized  in  Virginia  and  Louisiana ;  the  President 
is  organizing  under  his  proclamations  the  latter.  The  legal  effect 
of  their  recognition  is  to  restore  the  State  governments  to  those 
whom  we  have  just  expelled  from  them,  to  subject  the  emanci 
pated  negroes  to  the  discriminating  legislation  of  their  masters,  to 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC.  587 

continue  their  domination  over  the  loyal  minority,  to  guarantee 
to  them  the  right  to  represent,  now  three  fifths,  and  at  the  next 
census  the  whole  of  the  disfranchised  negroes,  and  to  admit  to 
Congress  votes  enough  to  compel  equality,  at  the  peril  of  anarchy, 
between  loyalty  and  disloyalty.  They  were  our  armed  enemies 
when  Lee  surrendered;  they  are  now  our  disarmed  enemies. 
They  are  now  for  independence  and  slavery,  and  against  union 
and  freedom ;  they  acquiesce  in  both  till  time  or  disaster  gives 
them  opportunity  to  realize  their  hopes,  and  till  then  their  interest 
and  purpose  are  to  obliterate  every  distinction  between  those  who 
rebelled  and  those  who  put  down  the  rebellion.  In  all  the  South 
the  only  mass  of  the  population  interested  and  able  to  foil  these 
designs  is  the  negroes  whom  the  President  has  disfranchised. 

Whatever  his  purpose  may  be,  his  policy  is  that  of  our  enemies. 
His  apologists  say  the  President  is  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage,  but 
that  is  small  comfort  if  his  proclamations  exclude  it.  We  remem 
ber  his  declaration  that  traitors  should  be  punished,  yet  none  are 
punished ;  that  only  loyal  men  should  control  the  States,'  yet  he 
has  delivered  them  to  the  disloyal ;  that  the  aristocracy  should  be 
pulled  down,  yet  he  has  put  it  in  power  again  ;  that  its  possessions 
should  be  divided  among  Northern  laborers  of  all  colors,  yet  the 
negroes  are  still  a  landless,  homeless  class ;  that  he  was  opposed 
to  military  commissions,  yet  they  still  defile  the  land,  and  others 
for  higher  victims  are  said  to  be  in  preparation !  The  President's 
words  are,  therefore,  uncertain  guides  to  his  conduct.  His  apolo 
gists  say,  to  the  States  alone  belongs  the  question  of  suffrage,  and 
the  President  left  it  to  the  people  interested  in  it.  .  But  that  is 
what  the  President  did  not  do.  The  negroes  of  the  States  which 
rebelled  form  in  some  States  a  majority,  in  others  a  half,  in  all  a 
vast,  powerful,  and  loyal  body  of  citizens,  and  to  them  he  has  not 
left  it.  On  the  contrary,  he  has  left  them  to  the  will  of  their  mas 
ters.  It  is  true  the  President  has  no  power  to  dictate  who  shall 
vote,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  he  has  no  power  to  dictate  who 
shall  not  vote.  He  has  as  much  power  to  admit  as  to  exclude.  His 
apologists  assure  us  it  was  in  obedience  to  the  State  Constitutions, 
which  survive  the  State  governments.  But  the  President's  proc 
lamations  do  not  say  so,  and  his  conduct  says  to  the  contrary. 
He  did  not  obey  the  Constitution  in  making  the  oath  a  qualifica 
tion  of  suffrage,  nor  in  authorizing  the  provisional  governor  to 
determine  the  loyalty  of  voters,  nor  in  appointing  him  to  make 


588          THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

rules  for  convening  the  Convention,  nor  in  directing  it  to  be  con 
vened  at  all,  nor  in  requiring  it  to  prohibit  slavery  ;  and  it  is  non 
sense  to  say  if  he  was  not  bound  on  these  points  he  was  bound  on 
negro  suffrage.  His  whole  conduct  was  a  usurpation,  but  it  was 
no  more  usurpation  to  direct  his  agents  to  receive  than  to  refuse 
negro  votes. 

The  suggestion  that  the  Constitutions  survive  the  goveraments 
is  at  once  absurd  and  dangerous.  The  governments  ceased  to  ex 
ist  because  they  disowned  their  subordination  to  the  United  States 
in  point  of  law.  Our  arms  expelled  them  as  usurpations  in  point 
of  fact.  The  Constitutions  were  Constitutions  of  those  govern 
ments,  and  of  nothing  else.  If  they  did  not  constitute  those  gov 
ernments  they  constituted  nothing.  A  Constitution  of  nothing  is 
nothing.  A  Constitution  which  does  not  constitute  is  a  contradic 
tion  in  terms.  Such  are  the  absurdities  of  this  new  form  of  South 
ern  Constitutional  metaphysics ! 

Our  ordinary  language  is  elliptical.  We  speak  of  a  Constitu 
tion,  but  that  means  nothing  till  we  add,  of  what,  "We  mean  a 
Constitution  of  government ;  and  the  moment  we  say  what  we  mean, 
the  folly  of  a  Constitution  surviving  the  government  is  apparent. 
When  the  rebellion  usurped  power  in  the  States,  the  State  gov 
ernments  ceased  to  exist ;  the  Constitutions  became  dead  forms ; 
the  line  of  official  transmission  of  powers  was  broken  ;  there  ceased 
to  be  any  person  designated  to  renew  the  functions  of  govern 
ment,  and  they  could  never  be  renewed  till  the  people  constituted 
anew  the  governments,  or  Congress,  in  executing  its  guarantee, 
directed  such  governments  to  be  constituted.  For  a  government 
is  certain  men  charged  with  certain  powers.  A  Constitution  of 
government  is  the  law  creating  the  powers  and  designating  the 
men  to  execute  them ;  and  without  the  men  the  government  and 
the  Constitution  are  alike  nonentities. 

But  the  view  is  also  dangerous.  For  if  the  Constitutions  con 
tinue  in  force,  then  the  representatives  and  senators  elected  under 
them  are  entitled  to  appear  in  their  seats,  require  their  names  to 
be  called,  and  to  vote  on  the  simple  production  of  their  certificates. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  Congress  should  recognize  governments 
in  those  States ;  for  the  old  governments  which  it  has  heretofore 
recognized  continue,  and  to  recognize  others  is  to  oust  them  by 
revolution.  This  has  always  been  the  view  of  the  Democratic 
allies  of  the  rebels ;  but  it  is  now,-for  the  first  time,  presented  for 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  tlNIVEKSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC.  589 

the  approval  of  the  Eepublicans.  The  President  had  not  thought 
of  this  view  when  he  made  the  prohibition  of  slavery  a  condition 
of  reorganization  ;  and  if  he  did  not  include  negro  suffrage  in  the 
conditions,  it  was  not  because  he  had  not  as  much  power,  but  less 
inclination  to  do  it.  Nothing  is  more  true  than  that  the  question 
of  suffrage  belongs  to  the  States,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  Con 
gress  is  the  exclusive  judge  of  the  compatibility  of  their  solution 
of  it  with  republican  principles.  The  States  have  the  right  to 
prescribe  who  shall  vote,  but  they  have  no  right  so  to  exercise  it 
as  to  create  an  oligarchy  or  an  aristocracy  instead  of  a  republican 
form  of  government :  and  it  is  the  right  and  the  duty  of  Congress 
to  judge  this  question  ;  and  its  judgment  is  final  and  conclusive 
on  all  departments  of  the  government.  If  Congress  thinks  the 
State  has  constituted  an  oligarchy  or  an  aristocracy  by  its  law  of 
suffrage,  it  is  entitled  and  bound  to  refuse  to  recognize  it,  to  an 
nul  the  law,  rescue  the  people  from  its  power.,  and  prescribe  meas 
ures  and  conditions  for  the  organization  of  a  government,  repub 
lican  in  form  in  its  judgment,  on  American  principles.  This  judg 
ment  it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  to  execute  ;  over  it  he  has  no 
power.  It  is  the  duty  of  guaranteeing  republican  government  in 
the  States  which  gives  Congress  this  high  jurisdiction ;  and  the 
ri£ht  of  determining  who  are  the  representatives  and  senators  car 
ries  with  it  the  exclusive  right  of  determining  which  is  the  consti 
tutional,  that  is,  the  republican  government  of  a  State,  for  other 
wise  it  might  find  itself  compelled  to  admit  representatives  and 
senators  of  States  whose  governments  are  not  republican  in  form 
or  substance  in  its  opinion. 

It  is  therefore  clear  that  the  President  is  wholly  beyond  the 
sphere  of  his  power  in  every  step  in  reorganizing  State  govern 
ments  ;  for  each  step  is  either  legal  and  binding  on  Congress,  or 
illegal  and  a  nullity ;  and  as  it  can  not  bind  Congress,  it  is  a  nul 
lity  and  an  illegality.  It  is  therefore  frivolous  to  say  the  Presi 
dent  could  do  nothing  but  what  he  did.  He  could  have  done 
nothing.  It  was  his  duty  to  have  done  nothing.  His  intermed 
dling  has  gravely  complicated  the  question  of  what  is  republican 
government  with  the  claims  of  persons  to  seats  and  of  parties  to 
votes.  But  this  does  not  vary  the  question,  and  it  must  be  met 
as  it  is  presented.  Eepublican  principles  and  national  interests 
alike  forbid  the  acceptance  of  the  President's  plan.  That  is  the 
recognition  by  Congress  of  the  principle  that  State  governments 


590          THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

which  ostracize  a  majority,  or  a  half,  or  a  great  mass  of  citizens, 
and  subject  them  to  the  absolute  government  of  others,  is  repub 
lican  in  form.  That  principle  has  never  yet  been  acknowledged 
by  any  Congress.  No  State  government  has  ever  been  recog 
nized  by  Congress  which  ostracized  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
white  or  black.  It  is  not  the  exclusion  from  political  power 
merely  which  is  the  test,  but  the  exclusion  of  great  masses  of  cit 
izens. 

A  State  may  arbitrarily  exclude  from  power  one  man,  or  a 
family,  or  a  thousand  families ;  or  it  may  exclude  from  power  a 
greater  proportion  of  those  who  have  renounced  their  allegiance 
and  defied  its  laws,  and  yet  not  affect  the  republican  character  of 
the  government.  But  republican  government  in  the  American 
sense  is  the  government  by  the  mass  of  citizens  through  their  rep 
resentatives.  Whenever,  therefore,  the  mass  of  the  citizens,  or 
any  great  proportion  of  them,  is  excluded  from  political  power, 
yet  required  to  submit  to  its  laws,  the  government  ceases  to  be 
republican,  and  Congress  can  not  recognize  it  as  such.  Here  the 
question  is  not  of  the  rights  of  man  to  a  voice  in  the  govern 
ment,  but  of  the  meaning  of  republican  government  required  to 
be  guaranteed  in  the  Constitution. 

Connecticut  has  just  refused  to  admit  negroes  to  vote ;  but  tnat 
does  not  touch  the  republicanism  of  her  government,  for  the  per 
sons  excluded  form  no  material  or  appreciable  portion  of  her  cit 
izens.  But  negro  suffrage  is  one  thing  in  Connecticut  and  anoth 
er  thing  in  South  Carolina.  In  the  latter  State,  the  negro  citizens 
form  two  thirds  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens.  To  deny  them  a 
vote  and  subject  them  to  the  will  of  the  one  third  is  absolutely  in 
conflict  with  a  republican  form  of  government.  It  is  not  merely 
an  aristocracy  of  race,  it  is  an  oligarchy.  If  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  permits  the  ostracizing  of  two  thirds  of  the  cit 
izens  and  their  subjection  to  one 'third,  the  guarantee  is  one  of 
mere  form.  A  tenth  may  as  well  rule  as  a  third,  or  one  man  as 
well  as  a  tenth. 

It  is  an  accident  that  the  line  of  disfranchisement  and  color  are 
the  same  ;  it  is  not  a  question  of  race,  but  of  republicanism.  If 
two  thirds  who  are  black  may  be  excluded  in  South  Carolina, 
two  thirds  who  are  white  may  be  excluded  by  the  blacks  in  North 
Carolina,  and  one  is  just  as  republican  as  the  other.  The  Consti 
tution  makes  no  distinction  of  color.  Its  only  distinction  is  that 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFEAGE,  ETC.          591 

between  free  and  slave  inhabitants.  The  slaves  were  always  ex 
cluded  irrespective  of  numbers,  for  they  were  not  citizens.  But 
•free  negroes  were  citizens  of  the  United  States.  They  were  never 
declared  by  any  State  not  to  be  citizens  at  the  time  of  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Constitution.  They  have  never  been  declared  not  to 
be  citizens  by  any  department  of  the  government.  The  Dred 
Scott  case  has  been  ignorantly  quoted  to  settle  that  point ;  but  it 
decided  not  that  afree  negro  could  not  be  a  citizen,  but  that  a  slave 
is  not  a  citizen ;  and  nobody  ever  supposed  he  could  be.  But  free 
negroes  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  by  the  -unanimous  judg 
ment  of  all  departments  of  the  government.  That  is  now  a  set 
tled  point.  And  the  Constitution  draws  no  distinction  between  a 
black  citizen  and  a  white  citizen.  Congress  has  never  acknowl 
edged  a  State  government  to  be  republican  which  ostracized  two 
thirds,  or  a  half,  or  one  third  of  its  citizens.  At  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  the  free  negroes  were  in  no  state  a  tenth  of  the 
whole  population.  In  Virginia  they  were  one  to  thirty-six;  in 
South  Carolina  one  to  seventy-seven ;  in  Georgia  one  to  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-eight ;  and  they  voted  in  neither  State,  though 
in  Virginia  declared  by  law  to  be  citizens.  In  Maryland  they 
were  one  to  twenty-five ;  in  North  Carolina  one  to  sixty ;  and 
they  voted  in  both.  The  largest  proportion  excluded  at  that  time 
was  in  Delaware,  where  they  were  one  to  eleven.  In  Tennessee, 
the  first  State  admitted,  they  were  one  to  nine,  and  they  voted.  In 
Kentucky,  the  next  State,  they  were  excluded ;  but  they  were 
only  one  to  five  hundred  and  twenty-six.  Even  when  Louisiana 
was  admitted — the  great  prize  of.  the  ambitious  slave  power — the 
ratio  was  only  one  to  seven. 

But  now  Congress  is  asked  to  guarantee  as  republican  such  des 
potisms  as  these :  In  North  Carolina  631,000  citizens  ostracize 
381,000  citizens.  In  Virginia  719,000  citizens  ostracize  533,000 
citizens.  In  Alabama  596,000  citizens  ostracize  437,000  citizens. 
In  Georgia  591,000  citizens  ostracize  465,000  citizens.  In  Loui 
siana  357,000  citizens  ostracize  350,000  citizens.  In  Mississippi 
353,000  citizens  ostracize  436,000  citizens.  In  South  Carolina 
291,000  citizens  ostracize  411,000  citizens. 

Jt  would  be  just  as  republican  to  reverse  the  numbers  ;  and  if 
we  have  no  respect  for  republican  principle,  common  sense  would 
require  that  we,  holding  the  government,  should  vest  our  friends 
with  the  State  governments  and  ostracize  our  opponents.  The 


592  THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

President  asks  us  to  ostracize  our  friends  and  place  our  enemies 
over  their  heads !  Either  course  leaves  republican  government 
without  any  guarantee  of  its  substance.  It  is  vain  to  attempt  to 
cover  such  iniquities  as  those  by  the  example  of  the  freehold  or 
property  qualifications  formerly  existing  in  some  States.  They 
might  doubtless  be  pushed  to  the  extent  of  impeaching  the  char 
acter  of  the  government ;  but  hitherto  they  have  never  in  the 
United  States  gone  so  far  as  to  require  the  interposition  of  Con 
gress.  They  never  excluded  any  such  masses  of  population  as 
are  ostracized  by  the  President's  plan,  and  they  ostracized  nobody. 
Every  one  could  vote  on  getting  the  requisite  property,  and  that 
was  beyond  nobody's  reach.  But  the  negro  citizens  are  ostra 
cized,  they  and  their  posterity  forever,  even  where  two  thirds  of 
the  people.  It  is  therefore  impossible  for  republicans  to  recog 
nize  the  President's  governments.  Nor  ought  they  to  feel  the 
least  hesitation  in  rejecting  them,  for  the  President's  intermed 
dling  is  wholly  illegal ;  it  is  an  assumption  to  dictate  to  Congress 
respecting  its  members ;  and  what  has  been  done  is  a  vain  form, 
having  no  claim  to  legal  authority  till  Congress  by  recognizing  it 
gives  it  legal  force.  These  mushroom  governments  play  at  gov 
erning  the  Southern  States.  It  is  plain  the  President  treats  them 
not  as  legal  and  authoritative  governments,  but  as  his  puppets, 
whose  acts  he  annuls  when  they  don't  suit  him.  Congress,  then, 
is  free,  and  bound  to  treat  them  as  mere  nullities — to  brush  them 
away  as  so  many  cobwebs,  and  on  the  cleared  field  to  mark  out 
the  foundations  of  republican  principles  on  which  the  government 
should  be  erected.  The  objects  to  be  kept  in  view  are  to  break 
the  force  and  unity  of  the  rebel  vote  in  Congress ;  to  rescue  the 
States  from  its  domination  ;  and  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  col 
ored  population  political  power  for  their  protection  and  our  safe 
ty.  Eetaining  the  States  under  military  power  postpones  the  first 
danger,  but  it  involves  a  greater.  Such  rule  continued  long  over 
such  vast  populations  must  destroy  every  vestige  of  republican 
government.  The  military  commissions  which  still  defy  the  law, 
under  the  authority  of  the  President,  and,  without  the  frivolous 
apology  of  actual  host  lities,  inflict  punishments  unknown  to  the 
law  for  acts  displeasing  to  the  President,  are  now  fast  unsettling 
the  foundations  of  national  freedom  and  personal  security.  If 
military  government  be  continued  in  the  rebel  States,  the  idea  of 
government  bylaw  will  die  out  from  the  land,  and  the  President's 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC.  593 

will  be  the  only  law.  I  prefer  to  risk  the  negroes  under  their 
masters  and  the  country  to  the  rebel  vote  in  Congress,  rather  than 
subject  loyal  negroes  and  disloyal  whites  to  the  common  despot 
ism  of  military  government,  and  expose  the  North  to  the  dangers 
of  tolerating  and  organizing  such  a  despotism.  Discarding,  there 
fore,  the  horrible  thought  of  military  government  as  one  the  peo 
ple  ought  not  to  tolerate,  and  will  not  tolerate,  how  can  Congress 
paralyze  the  dangerous  vote  ?  It  can  amend  the  Constitution  so 
as  to  apportion  representation  according  to  the  persons  who  are 
allowed  to  vote.  Mr.  Sloan  moved  this  last  winter,  but  it  never 
came  to  a  vote.  But  that  leaves  the  States  in  the  hands  of  the 
disaffected.  That  could  be  avoided  in  the  opinion  of  some  by  ex 
cluding  disloyal  men  who  have  been  engaged  in  the  rebellion  from 
power  in  the  States.  But  the  loyal  white  population  are  so  mere 
a  handful  in  the  midst  of  the  disaffected  mass  as  to  be  wholly  un 
able  to  administer  the  government  and  enforce  submission  to  the 
laws,  and  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  would  compel  them  to 
open  the  door  to  the  excluded  mass.  That  attempt  has  so  result 
ed  in  Virginia  and  Louisiana,  where  Governor  Pierpont  and  Gen 
eral  Banks  pursued  that  policy.  They  merely  created  a  tempo 
rary  and  powerless  oligarchy.  But  it  would  fail  in  one  other  ma 
terial  object.  The  negro  population  would  still  be  without  a  voice 
or  a  guarantee  for  any  right.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  at  once  to 
satisfy  republican  principles ',  rescue  the  States  from  rebel  domination, 
secure  Congress  against  their  undivided  and  hostile  vote,  protect  the 
rights  of  the  negro  population,  and  create  a  ~body  of  friends  for  the 
United  States,  interested  to  fight  for  its  supremacy,  that  Congress  shoidd 
require  the  States  to  be  reorganized  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage, 
and  that  it  should  refuse  to  recognize  any  government  which  does 
not  recognize  that.  It  should  then  secure  this  permanent  founda 
tion  of  American  republicanism  against  the  mutations  of  polit 
ical  life  and  the  local  hostilities  in  the  Southern  States  by  pro 
posing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  consecrating  it  forever 
as  the  criterion  and  condition  of  republican  government  in  every 
State. 

These  measures  are  the  necessary  buttresses  for  the  support  of 
that  prohibiting  slavery.  Without  them  it  will  totter  and  may 
fall,  and  certainly  must  fail  to  secure  real  liberty  and  equality  be 
fore  the  law.  Power  alone  is  security,  and  with  it  comes  respect, 
and  dignity,  and  education.  They  who  propose  to  postpone  ne- 

PP 


594  THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

gro  suffrage  till  the  negro  is  educated,  need  political  education 
m'ore  than  the  negro.  I  think  our  only  safety  is  in  confining  our 
efforts  to  these  measures.  It  is  too  late  to  break  the  power  of  the 
Southern  aristocracy  by  depriving  their  leaders  of  citizenship. 
Confiscation  was  never  possible  unless  by  partition  of  the  lands 
among  the  negroes,  and  that  Congress  feared  to  enact.  To  sell  a 
continent  is  impossible  without  a  continent  of  buyers ;  and  the 
laws  are  and  will  remain  in  the  President's  hands  mere  political 
thumb-screws  to  extort  votes  more  powerful  than  all  his  patron 
age.  All  that  remains  open  is  to  balance  the  power  of  the  disaf 
fected  aristocracy  by  the  resident  mass  of  loyal  negroes  armed 
with  the  ballot  and  bayonet. 

It  is  quite  certain  the  President  does  not  mean  to  insist  on  this. 
If  his  proclamations  were  an  experiment  on  the  temper  of  the 
white  population,  he  is  satisfied  with  facts  which  dismay  his 
friends.  He  is  so  impatient  of  contradiction  that  loyal  warnings 
are  become  "pestilent  and  malignant  utterances"  He  is  experi 
menting  now  on  nothing  but  the  patience  of  the  Eepublicans  and 
the  support  of  the  Democrats.  Of  the  latter  he  is  receiving  daily 
gratifying  assurances.  Of  course,  he  is  not  thinking  of  joining 
the  Democrats,  for  that  would  be  going  into  a  minority.  But 
neither  does  he  seem  to  be  devoted  to  the  Eepublicans.  His  pol 
icy  is  that  of  the  Democrats,  and  his  hope  is  to  induce  the  Eepub 
licans  to  abandon  their  principles  and  unite  with  him  in  execu 
ting  that  of  the  Democrats.  How  many  of  the  Eepublicans  will 
unite  with  the  Democrats  to  reinstate  the  representatives  of  the 
rebellion  in  power,  in  order  that  they  may  unite  with  the  Demo 
crats  to  expel  us  from  power,  remains  to  be  seen.  If  enough  to 
give  the  President  a  majority,  a  counter  revolution  is  effected, 
which  postpones  the  fruits  of  the  war  for  a  generation — it  may  be, 
then  to  be  wrung  from  those  in  power  by  another  civil  war.  It 
is  possible  the  President  may  mean  to  disappoint  the  hopes  of 
the  Democrats,  but  it  is  not  safe  for  Eepublicans  to  stake  their 
cause  on  that  doubtful  and  improbable  chance.  If  he  persevere, 
they  must  be  ready  to  defy  a  most  formidable  coalition ;  for  the 
Southern  representatives,  if  admitted,  will  in  this  Congress  meet 
many  warm  friends  from  the  Northern  States. 

In  the  next  Congress  the  coalition  can  hardly  fail  to  be  in  a 
majority  in  the  House,  and  to  press  so  closely  on  our  majority  in 
the  Senate  that  a  few  defections  may  destroy  it.  The  loss  of  the 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC.  595 

next  presidency  is  the  natural  sequel  of  the  triumph  of  the  Pres 
ident's  plan,  and,  if  once  lost,  will  any  one  name  a  day  when  there 
is  a  reasonable  prospect  of  our  regaining  it  ?  The  best  we  can 
hope  for,  therefore,  under  the  President's  policy,  is,  that  the  South 
ern  representatives  will  subordinate  their  passions  to  securing 
their  interests  in  the  Union  by  the  coalition  as  of  old.  It  is  not 
likely  the  Democrats  will  repel  their  advances. 

It  is  possible  that  these  people,  so  arrogant  in  rebellion,  may 
be  meek  when  in  power  over  their  enemies ;  that  they  will  pay 
our  debt,  pension  our  soldiers,  vote  indemnity  to  loyal  citizens ; 
and  vote  against  assuming  their  own  debt,  against  pensioning 
their  own  wounded,  against  restoring  their  own  officers  to  the 
army  and  navy,  against  compensation  for  their  slaves,  against  an 
nulling  the  confiscation  acts  or  indemnity  where  the  title  can  not 
be  revoked ;  and  that  the  Democrats  will  aid  them  in  passing 
their  self-denying  ordinances,  but  it  seems  to  me  not  wise  to  as 
sume  it.  It  is  safer  to  take  their  view  of  their  interests  as  the 
measure  of  what  they  will  attempt,  and  what-  they  can  do  as  the 
limit  of  what  they  will  do. 

I  do  not  fear  a  new  rebellion  now,  but  I  will  not  shut  my  eyes 
to  what  men  who  have  no  interests  but  what  are  opposed  to 
those  who  triumphed  may  do  in  power.  Fifty-seven  represent 
atives  and  twenty-two  senators  are  more  than  enough  to  arrest 
legislation  in  either  House  by  tactics  well  known  and  often  ap 
plied,  and  not  hitherto  pushed  to  revolutionary  extremes,  because 
the  constituencies  had  an  interest  in  the  government  the  repre 
sentatives  did  not  venture  to  disregard.  But  here  revolutionary 
constituencies  stand  behind  representatives  struggling  for  their 
interests  against  their  conquerors.  They  will  not  restrain  their 
representatives,  and  if  they  persist,  will  not  Democrats  hasten  to 
rescue  the  government  by  granting  their  demands  ?  If  they  fail 
in  this,  the  life  of  nations  is  too  fruitful  of  changes  to  justify  us 
in  excluding  from  our  calculations  contingencies  where  foreign 
war  or  civil  discord  may  place  the  nation  at  the  mercy  of  a  hos 
tile  minority ;  when  a  Buchanan  may  be  President,  and  refuse 
to  strike  while  they  divide  the  nation  without  the  fear  of  the 
sword ;  or  when  a  loyal  President  may  rashly  expel  them  from 
Congress,  break  the  power  of  law  by  violence,  and  plunge  us 
into  the  anarchy  of  civil  war  without  a  government  recognized 
by  all  which  alone  carried  us  safely  through  the  rebellion. 


596          THE  NECESSITY  OF  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE,  ETC. 

Against  all  these  dangers,  the  refusal  to  recognize  loyal  oligarch 
ies  or  disloyal  aristocracies,  and  the  recognition  only  of  govern 
ments  republican  in  form  in  the  Southern  States,  are  the  sufficient 
and  only  guarantee.  The  mass  of  the  loyal  negro  vote  breaks 
the  unity  of  the  hostile  vote  in  every  State,  and  will  absolutely 
control  it  in  many. 

In  1776  God  gave  us  wise  men  who  secured  every  point  of 
victory  possible.  In  this  time  of  trial  God  has  given  us,  for  our 
sins,  rulers  who  are  not  so  wise,  and  the  people  grope  toward 
their  salvation  and  teach  their  rulers  to  secure  it.  By  his  bless 
ing  we  are  intrusted  with  two  thirds  of  both  houses  of  Congress, 
and  that  is  the  absolute  legislative  power  of  the  United  States. 
What  we  think  right  we  can  do.  If  the  President  deserts  those 
who  elected  him  for  the  votes  and  policy  of  their  opponents,  we 
must  break  the  coalition  at  any  cost.  The  President  can  have 
our  support  only  by  conforming  his  conduct  to  our  principles.  It 
is  vain  to  argue,  from  the  dangers  of  division,  the  necessity  of 
submission  to  his  will ;  that  will  itself,  if  unchanged,  works  the 
ruin  more  surely  than  any  division.  It  is  itself  the.  division,  un 
less  we  meanly  sell  a  great  cause  for  presidential  patronage. 

But  it  is  vain  to  deny  that  failure  now  is  final  for  this  genera 
tion,  for  the  people  who  want  negro  suffrage  are  in  the  North,  and 
they  who  are  to  decide  it  are  in  the  South,  representing  and  vot 
ing  for  the  negroes  in  more  than  one  fourth  of  all  the  States,  with 
a  negative  on  any  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  and  absolute 
power  'in  each  State.  It  is  insane  to  dream  that  the  South  will 
of  itself  ever  give  either  suffrage  or  equality  before  the  law,  and 
now  is  our  only  time  to  compel  it. 

If  men  say  God  works  slowly,  yet  will  not  let  a  good  cause  fail, 
they  had  better  enlighten  their  piety  by  a  glance  at  his  ways  in 
history,  and  reflect  that  he  visits  wasted  opportunities,  not  less 
than  wickedness,  with  ruin.  I  trust  we  may  not  be  monuments 
of  that  wrath.  Very  sincerely,  your  obedient  servant, 

HENRY  WINTER  DAVIS. 

BALTIMORE,  October,  18G5. 


THE  END. 


13    6274 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT      J  2  2 

TO—  ^      202  Main  Library 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 

®s 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


